Posted on 04/16/2006 7:49:45 AM PDT by Eaglewatcher
The FairTax replaces the income tax and all other federal taxes with a national consumption tax. The FairTax is levied only once, at the point of purchase on new goods and services.
The group admits it will be difficult for legislators to face down entrenched special interest groups, but they initially proposed replacing the current system with U.S. Senate bill S. 25 and U.S. House of Representatives bill H.R. 25. The next step would be to repeal the 16th Amendment to the constitution allowing the Federal government to levy an income tax.
Signatories to the original petition include noted academic economists and practitioners who feel the current tax code cannot simply be fixed. The current regs include 54,000 pages, approximately 2.8 million words of mind-numbing rules, exceptions and special interest loopholes. This tangled web would be replaced by a simple national sales tax similar to that paid to the county, city or, in the case of our own Hawthorne TDD, the subdivision.
But what about poor people? The FairTax provides every family with a rebate of the sales tax on spending up to the federal poverty level (plus an extra amount to prevent any marriage penalty). The rebate is paid monthly in advance. It allows a family of four to spend $25,660 tax free each year. The rebate for a married couple with two children is $492 per month ($5,902 annually). Therefore, no family pays federal sales tax on essential goods and services and middle-class families are effectively exempted on a big part of their annual spending.
(Excerpt) Read more at digitalburg.com ...
Well, this is backwards. The repeal of the 16th amendment must come BEFORE any new tax is introduced. The reason is obvious; we don't want to end up with a NST and a federal Income Tax.
Ahem... I thought that one of the most important reasons for a "Fair Tax" in the first place was to ABOLISH THE IRS, not merely make it "smaller." Sheesh.
I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately I don't think this will ever happen. Entire industries are dependent on filing tax returns and the complexity involved.
The other thing that worries me is.....when has any federal agency ever been abolished? The IRS being put out of business?
Well here's hoping, but I seriously doubt it, sad to say.
I would think a sales tax for all people plus an income tax for those with assets over 1 billion dollars or income over 100 million would be workable.
Never going to happen.
The ruling political class and elites will make sure of it. The current system gives them the power.
Why do you think? Clearly, any assessments on the uber-wealthy serve only to satisfy the envious; the impact would be infinitessimal.
The Constitution, in Article I, Section 8, gives Congress the power "to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States."
In Article I, Section 9, the original document made clear that "no Capitation, or other direct Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census of Enumeration herein before directed to be taken." It is moreover established that "No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State."
Since 1913, our Constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property have been abridged and diminished by the imposition on each of us of Federal income, payroll, and estate taxes. This is an unconstitutional Federal assumption of direct taxing authority.
The Internal Revenue Service is the enforcement arm of the Federal government's present unjust tax system. Citizens, both in groups and as individuals, have repeatedly sought responses from the IRS bureaucracy as to the basis for the agency's tax policies and procedures. No answers have been forthcoming although a responsible government must be answerable to the people and has a duty to those it is supposed to serve.
We propose legislation to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, and will veto any authorization, appropriation, or continuing resolution which contains any funding whatsoever for that illicit and unconstitutional agency. We are opposed to the flat-rate tax, national sales tax, and value added tax proposals that are being promoted as an improvement to the current tax system. The Sixteenth Amendment does not provide authority for an un-apportioned direct tax.
Moreover, it is our intention to replace, with a tariff based revenue system supplemented by excise taxes, the current tax system of the U.S. government (including income taxes, payroll taxes, and estate taxes.)
To the degree that tariffs on foreign products, and excises, are insufficient to cover the legitimate Constitutional costs of the federal government, we will offer an apportioned "state-rate tax" in which the responsibility for covering the cost of unmet obligations will be divided among the several states in accordance with their proportion of the total population of the United States, excluding the District of Columbia. Thus, if a state contains 10 percent of the nation's citizens, it will be responsible for assuming payment of 10 percent of the annual deficit.
The effect of this "state-rate tax" will be to encourage politicians to argue for less, rather than more, federal spending, and less state spending as well.
To the extent permitted by the Constitution, we believe that the taxation of corporations is an appropriate source of government revenue. The Supreme Court has defined "income" as a "gain or increase arising from corporate activity or privilege." People are not corporations, and corporations need not be treated as "people" for the purposes of taxation.
There is substantial evidence that the 16th Amendment was never legally ratified. When elected, we will act to cease collection of direct Federal personal income taxes. We also support ratification of the Liberty Amendment which would repeal the Sixteenth Amendment, and provide that "Congress shall not levy taxes on personal incomes, estates, and/or gifts."
We support the use of motor fuel excise taxes, at rates not in excess of those currently imposed, to be used exclusively for the erection, maintenance, and administration of Federal highways. These taxes should never be used for "demonstration projects", mass transit, or for other non-highway purposes.
We support the use of excise taxes to curb the use of tax dollars for media advertising, and to provide so-called "tax abatements," "tax incentives," and "economic development grants," which are pretexts to raid the public treasury and rob the workingman for the benefit of wealthy interests favored by the politicians.
Perhaps they'd finally start paying some of their own freight.
I don't think so. A state will still want pork in their state so everyone else pays.
which makes it a "prebate", and that's what it is called.
It would be one of the bigest boons to our economy in history.
not to mention personal freedom! No more gestapo - er, IRS hovering over our shoulders, no more April 15th! -
the GROSS pay check in the pocket - small business unfettered from matching emp. taxes and bookkeeping - able to hire more people....It's a win-win. Even the super wealthy gets the prebate but after the "living allowance' - they'll actually pay taxes! Want that shiny new yacht, pay the taxes. It's only on the "wants' not the "needs".
Illegals wont get the prebate and will be paying the tax from dollar one!
And second hand goods are NOT taxed. Buy a good second had car - NO tax. Print this out and READ it - and email to everyone. The only way we;ll get this through is to DEMAND it.
http://www.geocities.com/cmcofer/ftax.html
http://www.fairtax.org/
Eight years ago it was supposed to rid us of the IRS. I give it one more year before the propaganda reads: "It only creates one more giant police state type bureaucracy". LOL!
Thanks for the post. I agree with you entirely that the Fair Tax Act would be the most beneficial legislation ever enacted, and it would not cost the government one red cent. In fact, the government would raise even more revenues on the deal.
ancient_geezer; Bigun; Principled; groanup; pigdog
Yes with a little shrinkage on the spending side they might even pay off the national debt!
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:
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