That's not enforceable anywhere that has a saltwater coast.
The fact is, if you had enough gasoline on a 30' boat, and were willing to drive the requisite thousand miles it would take to get from Mexico to some little pier on the Gulf, you could do it, and chances are, you wouldn't get caught, because everyone excepts the runners to use the easy route via Miami.
As it is now, most of our ports have at least one bent customs agent, now, they are likely not to let terrorists in, with drugs and contraband though, it becomes entirely different. All that you would do would be to create a contraband industry for goods you don't have to register with the government in anyway. (as opposed to a car)
Alcohol, Tobacco, CD's, Books, there would be a huge black market because people wanted to sidestep the tax, and there would be more than enough customs agent to oblige.
Every time the government tries to track down, people will find a way to get around, and they'll do it just so they can defy the government.
Every time the government tries to track down, people will find a way to get around, and they'll do it just so they can defy the government.
And this is different from the current system, with its 15-25%(as percent of GDP) cash underground and illegal trade how?
The issue in not on how oppressive a government must be to extract the last drip of blood for a turnip.
The fundamental is what kind of tax system is appropriate to fund a constitutionally limited government of a nation that is rooted in principals of personal liberty, and protection of the rights and property of the citizen, not the empowerment of government.
If the revenues are sufficient to the legitimate constitutional functions of federal government, then no more burden than that should be expected to be extracted from the citizen.
A retail sales tax system administered by the states provides the necessary buffer and protection of the individual citizen, while assure that level of funding necessary to the proper exercise of constitutional powers of government.
And you think, somehow, that under the present system these very same evasions are NOT going on now?? In fact, there is less motivation to evade the FairTax at a 23% rate than the present income tax which has a much higher marginal rate (and withholding taxes as well that make it even higher) - say 40% rather than 23%.
So is it your position that evading for a lesser reward is somehow more likely than at present? And keep in mind that with the FairTax, there are fewer audit points meaning that it is easier to go after such sorts of things if it is a problem.
It is far more likely that evasion will DECLINE under the FairTax ... Gale, Bartlett, & Brookings Institute nothwithstanding. Keep in mind the vested interests of these folks - and a number of the SQL (Status Quo Loving) posters on this thread, also, when you consider their outrageous claims.