[fooman]

You have just raised the price of everything 30%. The amount retail sales would certainly fall. taxes collected would fall short fot this reason.

Lots jewelry being bought overseas. lots of stuff be sold as used, but highly refurshed. difficult to police. Are going to bust open computers with used cases to what is inside?

A drastic 30% increase would see retail sales as we know fall dramatically. I think it would similiar to the EU with their 19% or so sales tax.

[Zon]

The amount of tax paid regardless of which rate is used --  23% inclusive tax rate or the 30 exclusive tax rate  -- is exactly the same. The tax paid is offset by product price reduction due to cascading embedded taxes and compliance costs removed over the chain of production. End/total prices remain about the same. So it's a wash. To learn more about the FairTax see: www.fairtax.org.