[Babu]

What prevents both a sales tax and income tax today?

That would be those of us who oppose adding a National Sales Tax to the list.

[groanup]

That would be those of us who oppose adding a National Sales Tax to the list.

Cheap shot. No one in favor of the NRST is in favor of it unless the IRS is abolished along with a repeal of the 16th amendment.

[OHelix]

The FairTax act repeals the income, corporate, payroll, SS, self-employment, inheritance, and other taxes. It gets rid of the IRS. And, while it can not repeal the 16th amendment, it calls for it's repeal.

It also explicitly puts limits on interpretation:

`SECTION 1. PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION.

`(a) IN GENERAL- Any court, the Secretary, and any sales tax administering authority shall consider the purposes of this subtitle (as set forth in subsection (b)) as the primary aid in statutory construction.

`(b) PURPOSES- The purposes of this subtitle are as follows:

`(1) To raise revenue needed by the Federal Government in a manner consistent with the other purposes of this subtitle.

`(2) To tax all consumption of goods and services in the United States once, without exception, but only once.

`(3) To prevent double, multiple, or cascading taxation.

`(4) To simplify the tax law and reduce the administration costs of, and the costs of compliance with, the tax law.

`(5) To provide for the administration of the tax law in a manner that respects privacy, due process, individual rights when interacting with the government, the presumption of innocence in criminal proceedings, and the presumption of lawful behavior in civil proceedings.

`(6) To increase the role of State governments in Federal tax administration because of State government expertise in sales tax administration.

`(7) To enhance generally cooperation and coordination among State tax administrators; and to enhance cooperation and coordination among Federal and State tax administrators, consistent with the principle of intergovernmental tax immunity.

`(c) SECONDARY AIDS TO STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION- As a secondary aid in statutory construction, any court, the Secretary, and any sales tax administering authority shall consider--

`(1) the common law canons of statutory construction;

`(2) the meaning and construction of concepts and terms used in the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as in effect before the effective date of this subtitle; and

`(3) construe any ambiguities in this Act in favor of reserving powers to the States respectively, or to the people.

[CSM]

"That would be those of us who oppose adding a National Sales Tax to the list."

Then you are missing the point in the legislation that restricts both systems being in place. What current restrictions exist?

[phil_will1]

"What prevents both a sales tax and income tax today?"

"That would be those of us who oppose adding a National Sales Tax to the list."

Great! Then you should find it easy to accept that those of us who oppose the income tax would be able to prevent it from rearing its ugly head again if we ever got rid of it.