A constitutional amendment repealing the 16th Amendment could easily be written to provide for a date in the not-too-distant future when the authority to tax income would expire, providing the time needed to move from one system to another.
Such is already on the tracks where are is the grassroots support to make it happen? Just as importantly where is the Congressional support for it to happen.
H.J.RES.14
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.j.res.00014:
Title: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to abolishing personal income, estate, and gift taxes and prohibiting the United States Government from engaging in business in competition with its citizens.
Sponsor: Rep Paul, Ron [TX-14] (introduced 1/26/2005) Cosponsors (2)
Latest Major Action: 3/2/2005 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution.
We have had proposals for such amendments to the constitution nearly continuously since the ratification of the 16th amendment and the first income tax enacted under it. It is interesting that no support to see the deed done arises in Congress as long as the income tax system has been in place.
I submit, you will not see the prohibition of the taxation of income until such time as the system itself is rendered obsolete by going to taxation of consumption as the viable alternative in place.
Nearly a century of experience under the income tax system bears evidence to that conclusion.
You have here a catch 22 situation, until the statutory infrastructure of the income/payroll tax is totally replaced by an alternative viable system of taxation you will not see the prohibition of the income tax.
The FairTax NRST is the first necessary step to the eventual prohibition of income taxes altogether. The other route of waiting for proposal and ratification of an amendment to prohibit income taxes is clearly no more than a pipe dream as history totally confirms.
The FairTax needs to realize that they need to include the 16th Amendment as part of what they are selling, and not some separate thing to be handled later like they do with spending control, end entitlement reform.
You claim to want to reform the way taxes are collected, why would you only want to do a partial job and leave the heavy lifting of the 16th to others? Many FairTaxers claim that they would not support the FairTax if the 16th is left standing.