Why aren't screws taxed? They are a finished product. If a person bought screws for a home project, the screws would be subjected to the "fair tax". Are you telling me that a manufacturer wouldn't be taxed when the company bought screws? And you think that that's "FAIR"?
Likewise, if you are correct and the company won't have to pay a tax on the screws, then WHY should anyone have to?
Or, are you telling me that every piece of something that goes into an end product will be tabulated and taxed at the end, when the consumer buys it? If that is the case, then the consumer is still paying the same taxes today,than he /she is today, with the hidden taxes; perhaps more.
If that is the case, then the consumer is still paying the same taxes today,than he /she is today, with the hidden taxes; perhaps more.It would be more. More for one because the Fairtax has a new entitlement they call a (gag!)"prebate". Their own graph shows more people paying not less, but NO, as in a negative tax rate, as in profiting from taxes, under their plan.
The "fair tax" is neither fair, nor workable. Neither is it a panacea.
A nice foundationless statement with no referent.
Fairness is rooted in treatment of the individual under a tax system. You apparently figure the current system is fair as compared to the FairTax legislation?
To measure fairness, one must have a standard, I take mine from a historical view, and you?
"A government ought to contain in itself every power requisite to the full accomplishment of the objects committed to its care, and to the complete execution of the trusts for which it is responsible, free from every other control but a regard to the public good and to the sense of the people."
"As revenue is the essential engine by which the means of answering the national exigencies must be procured, the power of procuring that article in its full extent must necessarily be comprehended in that of providing for those exigencies."
"As theory and practice conspire to prove that the power of procuring revenue is unavailing when exercised over the States in their collective capacities, the federal government must of necessity be invested with an unqualified power of taxation in the ordinary modes. "
"Imposts, excises, and, in general, all duties upon articles of consumption, may be compared to a fluid, which will, in time, find its level with the means of paying them. The amount to be contributed by each citizen will in a degree be at his own option, and can be regulated by an attention to his resources. The rich may be extravagant, the poor can be frugal; and private oppression may always be avoided by a judicious selection of objects proper for such impositions. "
Whether they be in the form of tariffs, duties, or excises. All authorized under Article I Section 8 Clause 1 of the Constitution.
People should pay taxes in accordance with "what they actually take out of the common pot, not what they leave in." (Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan)
"[T]he Equity of Imposition, consisteth rather in the Equality of that which is consumed, than of the riches of the persons that consume the same. For what reason is there, that he which laboureth much, and sparing the fruits of his labor, consumeth little, should be more charged, than he that living idlely, getteth little, and spendeth all he gets; seeing the one hath no more protection from the Common-wealth, than the other? "
Why aren't screws taxed? They are a finished product. If a person bought screws for a home project, the screws would be subjected to the "fair tax".
They are if you are buying them retail as an individual doing household projects or a hobby.
Are you telling me that a manufacturer wouldn't be taxed when the company bought screws?
Absolutely as the company incorporates them into a product to be ultimately sold to a final consumer, who pays not only the inherent cost of that screw but an tax collected on they way to his final use as well as the product moves down the production pipeline into that final consumer's hot little hand.
And you think that that's "FAIR"?
YES!!
No company ever can pay a tax, the most they can do, and remain viable, is collect tax to be remitted to govenment out of sales revenues from a final customer.
You the citizen bares all the costs of govenment burdens imposed whether they derive from the tax system or regulatory burdens in general all such burdens pass on to the real live consumer and citizen by necessity. The fairness of any tax system can only consist in that the one who bears the ultimate burden of it be apprized of the cost of it to him.
One of the primary failures of a VAT, or any corporate tax income or otherwise, is that they hide the cost of government from the view of those who ultimate bear all costs of government imposed requirements. The American Citizen.
Likewise, if you are correct and the company won't have to pay a tax on the screws, then WHY should anyone have to?
Because under the Constitution, taxes are the chosen means by which our government is financed. The citizen ultimately bears the burden of every imposition of government and must be aware of the full and true cost being imposed upon him to knowledgibly exercise his voting franchize to hold govenment accountable for fiscal excess.
Or, are you telling me that every piece of something that goes into an end product will be tabulated and taxed at the end, when the consumer buys it?
Yep its called final retail price of a product, a price that any viable company must collect from its goods and services to remain in business as opposed to going bankrupt.
If that is the case, then the consumer is still paying the same taxes today,than he /she is today, with the hidden taxes; perhaps more.
That is what revenue neutral means my freind, Tax reform is about the method of taxation not the amount. As far as more, decrease a tax rate and we are told that total revenues to government increases, so perhaps with growth of the economy that is expected yes the American people may actually cough up more dollars to government as a lower percentage rate than they do now. They will however know what is being extracted from them, and can make a knowing choice of representation in Congress based on that knowledge.
Are you getting full value from government for your tax dollar now? How do you or anyone know when a significant portion of taxation is hidden from view. In fact for a large portion of the electorate, anything they get appears to be a freebee. No wonder demand for government by a majority of citizens continues as it has for the last 100 years.
"It's like me in the restaurant: What do I care about extravagance if you're footing the bill? "
--- Walter Williams
Bush touts relief as tax day looms
Another 3.9 million Americans will have their income tax liability completely eliminated, officials said.
That's 3.9 million Americans more added to the spending constituency of 70% of the public clamoring for more from government, figuring someone else foots the bill.
The term "finished product" has no relevance as far as the FairTax is concerned. the product itself does not determine the taxation but whether or not it is purchased by the end consumer (who normally, but not always, would be an individual).
If the screws you cite were purchased by a company using them to incorporate into some sort of product to sell at retail, then certainly the screws are not taxable. Should the end consumer buy them to repair something in his home, then this would be purchase at retail by an end consumer and the screws would be taxable. "Fair" or "Unfair" doesn't enter into the matter. It is the transaction itself rather than the item involved in the transaction that is the determinant. Nor will "every item that goes into an end product" be "tabulated and taxed at the end". The thing involved is taxed only a single time with that being at the "end" in your example when sold to the homeowner for his own use.
And, NO, the consumer won't be paying "the same taxes he does today" since at present some part of the business income tax is embedded into the price of everything we buy thereby raising prices due solely to the business income tax. With the income tax eliminated, prices will decline because of that and the wage earner will have his entire paycheck to use (plus the prebate).