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I know where the vast areas of sales taxes are collected right now, I can't help but know whenever I read a receipt for chrissakes.

And no legit business is going to cheat, but as you should be aware, not every establishment in this country that is listed as a business plays by the rules. That's why we have the BBB, so when we see a violator, we can report them.

You'd be surprised what people do today that qualifies them for a business license.

Not everything in this country is a chain or franchise.

And in this whole grand tax overhaul scheme, have you ever taken the time to look at the finances of state governments that run primarily on sales tax revenues.

Sales Taxes, in terms of actual taxes are the single most economy senstitive tax scheme out there, and that ain't voodoo economics.

Income, for the most part, that's a stable variable, now property values will never really decline in numerical value, though they can decline in real value. But all and all, a somewhat stable variable. Sales Taxes are not stable. If you have a year where sales are 50% down, then guess what, your tax revenue off those sales will be 50% down, meaning, you're in a deep financial hole. I have yet to see anyone here explain how this NRST will be buffetted against the fluctuations in consumer activity.

Sales Taxes, in terms of actual taxes are the single most economy senstitive tax scheme out there, and that ain't voodoo economics.

Income, for the most part, that's a stable variable, now property values will never really decline in numerical value, though they can decline in real value. But all and all, a somewhat stable variable. Sales Taxes are not stable.

As I said earlier in this thread, if revenues fall, the Congress will have two choices: Cut spending, just as the American people are having to do in an economic downturn, or raise the rate. Option two will quite naturally be politically unpopular, and could reduce revenues even further, as Alexander Hamilton explained so clearly in the Federalist.

So, we will have created a situation that naturally puts pressure on our elected leaders to get spending under control.

Please explain to me what can possibly be bad about that.

I know where the vast areas of sales taxes are collected right now, I can't help but know whenever I read a receipt for chrissakes.

And no legit business is going to cheat, but as you should be aware, not every establishment in this country that is listed as a business plays by the rules. That's why we have the BBB, so when we see a violator, we can report them.

You'd be surprised what people do today that qualifies them for a business license.

Not everything in this country is a chain or franchise.

All of which totally ignored the main point: That the vast majority of sales taxes are collected by big retail firms that have no possible motivation for cheating.

And no legit business is going to cheat, but as you should be aware, not every establishment in this country that is listed as a business plays by the rules. ...
Not everything in this country is a chain or franchise.

Over 80% of all retail dollars flow throughm the large retail businesses, that is all that is necessary to assure a higher compliance with a National Retail Sales Tax in dollar terms than currently exists under the federal income/payroll tax system today.

refer: Tax Evasion: The Underground Economy

Income, for the most part, that's a stable variable

Actually income is less stable, as a taxable base, than consumption expenditure.

FairTax and Stable Government Revenue

Standard Deviation of Tax Bases Normed to the average of the series
Norm	Consumption	Taxable Income
Average of Series	.24	.35

FIGURE 1: This figure compares the percentage of variation of real taxable income and real personal consumption expenditure to a steady state constant growth curve. Personal consumption expenditure (PCE)
is shown to be less variable and more stable than taxable income.

Actually, consumption (sales taxes if you will) are more stable a tax base than income tax so that there will be fewer revenue fluctuations, not more.

Also, think about what most states are likely to do once the FairTax becomes law. They have no piggybacking mechanism to define income, deductions, etc. and would have to duplicate the entire statutory and enforcement structure along with the expenses thereof on a state basis (rather than have it paid by taxpayers as an unfunded mandate as at present).

The most reasonable thing for most states is probably to subscribe to a FairTax-conforming sales tax themselves. The upshot of that would be that in most states the sales tax rate would decline a good bit rather than increase since not only is the consumption tax base much greater than the income tax base, but the FairTax has no exemptions, deductions, etc. as are presently within all state sales taxes. In other words, even a lower state sales tax would raise more money.

In a state like California, for example, which has a 7.75% (or so depending upon various things) sales tax rate now, the rate would drop to something like 2 or 3% (perhaps less due to all the millions of illegal aliens in the state).

Stop and think - use your common sense. At present, the IRS's own figures for non-compliance and evasion (and that does NOT include illegal income) are about 20-25% of tax revenues each year. That's a huge "couple of bucks" that those defending the Status Quo hope you do not think about. They'd rather you assume the present tax system has no warts (non-compliance, evasion, illegal income) but in fact it is rife with those things and most people would be well-advised to stop and realize it.

Raising the spectre of the boogeyman as they do is disengenuous as well as inaccurate.