Posted on 03/09/2006 3:42:02 PM PST by Eaglewatcher
Koop, of Roanoke, is a retired engineer from Eastman Kodak Co. and the volunteer communications director for Roanoke Area FairTax.
A local group of volunteers is working to provide a fairer way to pay federal taxes. A bill pending in Congress, The Fair Tax Act of 2005 (HR 25), would abolish the Internal Revenue Service and replace the income tax with a national sales tax. That is, the tax on income would be replaced with a tax on consumption.
A tax system that is routinely manipulated for their benefit by those with means, resulting in thousands of pages of incomprehensible rules and regulations, would be replaced with a system much like one we routinely deal with today -- our sales tax.
Roanoke Area FairTax (RAFT) is affiliated with Americans for Fair Taxation, the national organization that is supporting similar grassroots efforts across the nation.
RAFT has two missions: education and advocacy. We seek to bring knowledge about the FairTax to area citizens and channel the support of citizens to urge elected federal representatives to pass the FairTax legislation.
Education takes two forms:
First, make citizens aware that such a proposal exists.
Second, tell the public what the proposal is and provide sources of information. Such information includes a Web site (fairtax.org), a best-selling book (The FairTax Book by Neal Boortz and Rep. John Linder, R-Ga.), speakers, publications, informational meetings, workshops, booths and word of mouth. In addition, volunteers call on residents to talk about the FairTax.
Advocacy involves accumulating the support of individual citizens to provide notification to members of Congress that HR 25 deserves to be passed.
Although there is little motivation for Congress to pass the bill, when grassroots support reaches critical mass, action will follow.
The volunteers who educate also provide the conduit from citizens to representatives via a petition urging action. In general, people sign the petition only after learning what the FairTax is about.
Hopefully, readers of this piece will explore the sources of information listed above so that, if they choose, their support can be applied to the task. A petition can be submitted directly on the Web site.
Certain principles are central to the FairTax proposal:
. It is not anti-tax.
. It will raise the same revenue as the current system.
. It will tax only new goods and services
. Everyone will pay taxes the same way.
The creators of the FairTax determined that 22 percent of the current cost of consumer goods and services consists of embedded taxes and compliance costs (time and money). After eliminating these, a 23 percent embedded sales tax will provide equal revenue.
Other changes will benefit taxpayers, too. Gone will be the taking of withholding taxes, Social Security taxes and Medicare taxes from our wages. Gone will be the filing of paperwork and the payment of taxes every April 15. Gone will be the costs of the filing. Gone will be the Alternative Minimum Tax that due to inflation has declared many of us far richer than we really are.
Gone will be the need for the rest of us to make up for the tax evasion of others: earners of illegal income, the underground economy and the dishonest, all amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars of untaxed income. Gone will be the tax compliance costs of commerce passed on to all of us in the form of higher prices.
A number of bread-and-butter benefits will result. Although our take-home pay will be larger (no deductions), prices will be about the same due to competitive pressures. We will be able to buy more.
In addition, there is a provision for the less-successful: Every household will receive a monthly check (a "prebate") covering the taxes on all basic necessities for that size household. For low-income households, that will represent a 23 percent increase in income.
For the wealthy, it will approximate pocket change. For the rest of us, the prebate will represent an increasing benefit with decreasing income.
The economy is expected to show substantial growth as we think more about maximizing income and less about minimizing taxes. Offshore investors are expected to return and foreign investors to come to take advantage of our favorable tax environment. American companies will enjoy competitive advantages in the global economy.
What can you do to contribute to the public discussion of the FairTax? Visit the Web site, read the book, attend monthly FairTax meetings (fairtax.meetup.com/53/), write letters to the editor and sign a petition. Your support for this measure will make April 15 just another beautiful spring day.
As Rush keeps saying, the window for serious tax reform is shrinking fast. Once the majority of the country become non tax payers and the burden shifted entirely onto the "rich", you can kiss tax reform goodbye forever.
Our present system is incompatible with a free people. Go fair tax!
Everyone should be treated equally under the law and pay the same amount. If the government wants more, they will have to raise the tax for everyone. No dividing and conquering by trying to raise taxes on some other guy.
Equal means equal.
fair tax bump
I prefer the sales (Fair) tax, but even pubbies would soil their underwear if it was pushed too hard.
>Everyone should be treated equally under the law and pay the same amount. If the government wants more, they will have to raise the tax for everyone. No dividing and conquering by trying to raise taxes on some other guy.
>Equal means equal.
=================================
I believe you mean everyone should pay the same percentage of an income type tax. I agree with that. The socialists have rigged the system, over a few decades, to be "fair" (/sarcasm )to tax producing ppl and give "Gimees" to their voting block. If there was equal pain to all.. then it would be almost impossible to raise taxes over a certain level.
I prefer the sales (Fair) tax, but even pubbies would soil their underwear if it was pushed too hard.
Reposting as was my 1st C&P.. yikes!
I actually mean the same amount. Every one gets the same tax bill, once they have paid it they are free to pursue their dreams.
Those who want the same rate, have "From each according to his means" embedded in their DNA.
If you truly believe in everyone being treated equally, then the only response can be giving everyone the same bill. If you want to collect different amounts, you are really only paying lip service to the ideal of equality.
Knowing our Federal government, we will end up with a Sales tax as well as a Income tax. And there will have to be a transition period because it is a major overhaul of our tax system -- some will pay more others less, etc.
The legislation calls for elimination of the IRS, the income tax AND the 16th amendment. No fair taxer would accept the deal without those provisions. The transition involves grandfathering existing new products under a tax free scenario.
Not to mention that a Sales tax is tied to consumption. Seems like it will have a negative impact on our consumption based economy.
If a worker keeps all of his paycheck he'll have more money to spend. The biggest debate has been how much prices might fall given that none of the producers in the pipeline of a single product will have to pay income taxes and compliance costs. Besides, in the 1970's era of hyperinflation Americans spent money like crazy. Americans gotta have their stuff.
And the Feds are not going to want to give up that much control of revenue generation to average citizens.
Which is precisely why we need to get rid of the income tax forever. Freedom. If they don't want to give it up then throw the bums out.
Also, it will be easier to "hide" the tax because it will be a "tax as you go" tax versus knowing exactly how much income tax you have paid last year when you do your taxes.
I tend to disagree. Most Americans are too lazy to understand that they pay taxes. They just think they get a "check" at the end of the year. The sales tax will be printed on every receipt. Wake up call every time you buy a hamburger.
The legislation calls for elimination ofNo it doesn't.the IRS, the income tax ANDthe 16th amendment.
http://www.geocities.com/cmcofer/ftax.html
This could bring about the greatest freedom we have ever seen in this country. (the Hitlery s of Washington couldn't even punish opponents with audits - just damn)
Please don't decide on the Fair Tax issue with knee-jerk reactions from what others say. Give the Fair Tax a fair hearing - for our own sake.
http://www.geocities.com/cmcofer/ftax.html
Print it out and read it through - make up your own mind on the facts - it's your life
"Alright, I'm going to level with you all. The most important thing now is that you remain calm. There's no reason to panic (his nose starts to grow ). Now, it is true that one of the crew members is ill, slightly ill, but the other two pilots are just fine, they're at the controls, flying the plane, free to pursue a life of religious fulfillment." - Dr. Rumack
source...the movement for consumption-based taxation has been hijacked by a group of extremists whose principal interest is abolishing the Internal Revenue Service.21 They believe that if virtually all federal taxes are abolished and replaced with a retail sales tax like those in the states, then the states can simply collect the federal government's revenue for it, thereby allowing for abolition of the IRS...
21 The Church of Scientology originated this legislation as part of a campaign against the IRS because it refused for many years to allow gifts to the church to be deducted as legitimate charitable contributions, on the grounds that it was not a true church. The IRS eventually relented. See Davis (1997) and Starobin (1995) for discussions of the Church of Scientology's role in the sales tax campaign.
Davis, Bob. 1997. "CATS Out of the Bag." World, 12:9 (May 31/June 7).
Starobin, Paul. 1995. "No Returns." National Journal (March 18): 666-671.
Writing science fiction for about a penny a word is no way to make a living. If you really want to make a million, the quickest way is to start your own religion.
~ L. Ron Hubbard
If anyone would like to be added to this ping list let me know.
John Linder in the House(HR25) & Saxby Chambliss Senate(S25) offer a comprehensive bill to kill all income and SS/Medicare payroll taxes outright and replace them with with a national retail sales tax administered by the states.
H.R.25,S.25
A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national retail sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.Refer for additional information:
So why do you SQL's come on here and write it for free? Are the giving away acorns?
With the IRS the taxpayer is presumed guilty until proven innocent.
The tax code is incredibly complex. Forty accounts at Money magazine -- this was about fifteen years ago when the tax code was considerably smaller -- each did the tax returns for a family of four. None of them arrived at the same amont of tax owed.
In a study, when calling the IRS help-line, 40% of the answers given were wrong.
The overwhelming negatives of the tax system need not be exaggerated for the speak for themselves.
The income tax system is intentionally deceptive. For example, people think the taxes withheld from their paycheck and/or the tax-"bill" they pay on April 15 is how much they pay in taxes. That's a deception because they are unaware of the taxes they pay when they by a loaf of bread or other product and service. A portion of the product's price is passed along by the seller to the government as business income tax. For you, the consumer, the tax you pay that is embedded in the price of products and services is out of sight, out of mind -- yet paid out of your wallet.
Honesty and justice demands that the accuser/prosecution/IRS bare the burden of proof. The defendant/taxpayer is innocent until proven guilty.
The income tax and IRS is a bushel of warts. Ugly and unwanted.
Of the various tax systems offered to replace the present system the FairTax has by far the most grassroots support than any other; the most support from businesses, big and small; the most support among economists. The FairTax has been much more thoroughly researched than any of the others and probably more than the others combined. The most notable being the VAT (value added tax) and the flat tax.
With ample proof of the warts on the income tax and the abuse of citizens by the IRS there's no reason to exaggerate the negatives They alone speak volumes for (read: against) the income tax and IRS.
For that same reason in juxtaposition to the FairTax there's no reason to exaggerate the benefits of the FairTax. As many people have voiced their opinion: anything would be better than the tax system we have now. Likewise, the FairTax is winning over, by large and widening margins, evermore people businesses and economists than the VAT and flat tax. There's simply no reason to exaggerate or be deceptive in educating people about the FairTax.
The smell of a skunk is what it is. The smell of a rose is what it is. That's a spot on analogy of the juxtaposition of the income tax and FairTax.
There's a small cadre of anti-FairTax posters on these threads. Why they are anti-FairTax and what their vested interest is in maintaining the present status quo is irrelevant not just by the number of pro-FairTax people that dwarf them, but rather, becasue...
“There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.” – Victor Hugo
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.