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I do not know how much is spent on tax planning, but it is a huge industry, just google tax planning, tax attorney or tax accountants....While you are at it, how about answering my previous questions? Oh a one more, what do you suggest?

...Do you believe our current system is fair and simple? Does the power lie with the people or Congress?....

Sorry for the delayed reply ... real life does get in the way from time to time.

To answer your questions (and a few others):

No I do not believe our current tax system is fair; and no, I do not believe our current tax system is simple.

I believe the "power" lies with those who control the purse strings. I believe that the purse is the Federal budget. I believe that the purse is obscenely large regardless of the method of tax collection. So I guess I believe that the "power" lies with Congress, regardless of the method of collection.

I believe that the proposed FairTax makes some promises it cannot deliver. I believe it has several good aspects that are worthy of serious consideration; I believe it has others that are seriously flawed.

What do I suggest? well for starters I'd suggest getting realistic about the flaws of the FairTax. Then, maybe, we can talk about other possibilities.

Oh, yeah. The question is: just how big is the planning industry? "I don't know, but it's really big!" does little to inspire confidence in your assessment and even less to help figure out whether it makes a big enough difference to chance a wholesale upheaval of the economy.

The source often cited by the FairTax folks, Payne, suggests that it's really not all that big (in GDP terms.)