How often will it happen that an individual does not purchase the necessities of life? Maybe buy-up one month to save the next month - but that means they paid last month.
What is the alternative? No rebate? Then you'd complain that it wasn't fair to everyone. You simply don't want this to happen.
In the case someone decides to grow their own food with their own seed and consume nothing - it would be easy to see this won't happen much if at all - people like being comfortable - people like electricity at home, prepared food, cable tv, cell phones, boats, etc....but in your little case you want to magnify - the alternative is no refund of taxes on necessities. That would be unnacceptable to pass the reform bill (which is your goal, I know) but not to 3/4ths of the folks who hear about this reform.
And it is a refund of overpaid taxes - any tax paid on necessities is an overpayment. It is only something different in the unlikely situation above... So only in those cases (and I'm not convinced those cases will happen) could you call it other than refund. Go ahead. But it is a refund for the people consuming their necessities.
How often will it happen that an individual does not purchase the necessities of life? Maybe buy-up one month to save the next month - but that means they paid last month.About 35 million people in 2003.
How often will it happen that an individual does not purchase the necessities of life?
According to Consumer Expenditure Survey data, somewhere around next to none.
http://bls.gov/cex/2001/Standard/income.pdf
| Table 2. Income before taxes: Average annual expenditures and characteristics, Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2001 |
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