Posted on 12/24/2007 7:55:05 AM PST by Alex Murphy
WASHINGTON — Mike Huckabee, one of the most conservative Republicans in the 2008 presidential race, has embraced one of the most radical ideas on the campaign trail: a plan to abolish all federal income and payroll taxes and replace them with a single 23% national sales tax.
The idea -- dubbed the "fair tax" by proponents -- has been a political asset for Huckabee; its well-organized backers have helped catapult him from the back of the presidential pack to its top tier.
Sales tax proponents have tapped into seething voter hostility toward the Internal Revenue Service to become a below-the-radar political force, popping up at campaign events and candidate forums in Iowa and elsewhere.
The efforts on Huckabee's behalf by sales tax advocates helped spur his surprise second-place showing in an August Iowa straw poll -- the breakthrough that marked the beginning of his rise in the state and nationwide.
He is the only major presidential candidate to make the idea central to his campaign. "The first thing I'd love to do as president: Put a 'going out of business' sign on the Internal Revenue Service," he said at one debate.
Some wonder, however, whether his embrace of the plan eventually could turn into a liability.
The sales tax proposal has been around for years but languished on the fringes of practical politics and policy. Tax professionals generally regard the idea as impractical, regressive and even "crackpot," as one critic puts it.
It has gone nowhere in Congress. The 2005 Presidential Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform soundly rejected the idea. And many politicians shy away from it because it is easy for opponents to portray it as a huge tax increase -- as Democrats did in a 2006 Senate race in South Carolina.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Question: If you eliminate the payroll tax, how will you determine the amount of Social Security benefit a person will receive?
I did and I have. Around $2.3 million in saved wealth outside of SEP'S, 401.K's, etc already saved.
How America's mindset has changed when not depending on somebody else for your old age or early retirement is considered "not planning well".
LOL!
In our current tax state, it isn't as easy as I save money and spend it when I get old with no tax consequences.
Higher taxes on spending, for the old!
Ah so your strategy for lowering your taxes is to cut your income. Brilliant.
You won’t cut your taxes much using a 401K. Working off the books is illegal BTW.
If we had a national sales tax, you could really cut your taxes by bartering or growing your own food.
There is no better plan to generate real wealth, and let people pass on the american dream to their kids.
You said a sales tax is great, because you can decide when or if to pay. Kind of like deciding not to pay taxes on money put into a 401K or IRA.
Getting an extra week of paid vacation gives me a benefit that the government can't tax. Buying muni bonds gives me income that the government doesn't tax. Paying tax deductible interest or property taxes lowers my taxable income.
You won’t cut your taxes much using a 401K.
Why not?
Working off the books is illegal BTW.
Really? And yet it still happens.
I'm glad I could educate you on ways that people can limit the taxes they pay under our current system. Let me know if you need any more education on the basics. I'm always glad to help.
You almost had me. Yeah, except for the 30% tax on spending, the FairTax is perfect!
There is no better plan to generate real wealth,
There is no better plan to generate screw saved wealth.
Seriously... you’ve never set down with excel and built a couple of models. Starting with say age 35 or 40. And looked at the tax consequences both ways. And the value you end up with both ways.
Seriously, taxing my savings an additional 30% when I spend it sounds like a poor model to me. If you have no savings and lots of debt, I can understand your infatuation with the FairTax.
Yes, they would cease until Congress decided to start monkeying around with it when not enough taxes were coming in to support their pork spending. Also, I find it disengenious that Fair Tax supporters don't point out that previously untaxed things, like prescriptions, doctor visits, hospital bills and operations would be taxed under the Fair Tax.
If you plan on retiring with 200k and social security to live off of, it doesn't make much sense. But then you got big problems either way if that is your retirement plan.
Except it would be 30% more than I'd pay on my savings.
But if you're a person who saves a lot, has a company that contributes a lot, has made a lot off your investments and doesn't want your kids to pay inheritance taxes, or you want to gift them and your grandkids.... it makes a LOT of sense.
But if you're a person who saved a lot,.... it doesn't make a LOT of sense.
What have you got your savings in? A Mason Jar burried in the back yard?
Also, what in Huckabee’s life would teach him about money?
Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, cash, equity in my house. I'd prefer not to get screwed out of an extra 30% of that savings. Thanks.
HUCKABEE IS NOT A CONSERVATIVE.
HE IS A WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHES.
Let’s say you lower your taxes by putting $200 a month into a 401k. Actually, you have just taken that money from your cash flow. Although your taxes did go down, your disposable income went down a whole lot more.
” Let me know if you need any more education on the basics. I’m always glad to help.”
I’ll just wait until you reach adulthood.
Yes, I lowered my taxable income. Glad I could help. Let me know if you have any more questions.
When you get older and start withdrawing from each of those, you'll have a little better perspective. And when you get old enough that the government MAKES you sell some of that so that they can collect taxes from you, you'll have an even different perspective.
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