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To: baybabe
There have been many studies on past threads showing that under the FairTax (with the 9% price reduction that both sides have stipulated)

Why would the price of a doctor visit fall?

You buy into an automatic price rise while income remains stable and that has certainly never been shown to be so in any economic study.

Says who? I don't buy into the perpetual motion (really bad math) of many FairTax supporters.

Certainly you will be paying taxes under the FairTax at your effective FairTax rate (rather than the higher marginal 23% ti rate you project). If you'd figure out your effective rate you'd be in a better position to see that.

Let's pretend my effective rate is 10%. Let's pretend my doctor currently charges $100 for a checkup. The FairTax becomes law, I'm so excited that I go to get a checkup. Clean bill of health. I stop at the billing desk, they hand me the bill. According to the new law, they have to break out the tax on the bill. How much is it?

764 posted on 01/08/2008 4:35:23 PM PST by Toddsterpatriot (What came first, the bad math or the FairTaxery?)
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To: Toddsterpatriot
You seem to not understand how an effective tax rate works. "Breaking out" the tax amount as specified in the bill is one number which you'd pay during the visit but what it actually costs you must take into consideration the effect of the prebate. Let's look at your example.

The bill calls out the marginal tax rate (just as do the present income tax tables). It requires the receipt to specify the tax paid at point of purchase using the inclusive marginal rate of 23%.

If you paid the doctor $100, then $23.00 would show as the marginal rate which is what you would pay at that point in time - HOWEVER you would be receiving a refund so that (using your 10% effective tax rate) you'd end up paying a net of 10 percent tax inclusive after the prebate. The untaxed doctor bill would be $77.00 ($100.00 minus $#23.00) making the effective amount you pay while considering the prebate to be about $85.56 - the $77.00 plus the tax amount to include your 10% effective rate.

765 posted on 01/10/2008 9:01:20 AM PST by baybabe
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