| This thread has been locked, it will not receive new replies. |
|
Locked on 02/18/2008 10:17:33 AM PST by Religion Moderator, reason:
Childish behavior |
Posted on 02/16/2008 3:30:21 PM PST by xcamel
One solution to the nation's long-term fiscal problems that has gained support in recent years is the idea of replacing all federal taxes with a 23 percent national retail sales tax called the FairTax. Unfortunately, the administrative problems inherent in this proposal make it impossible to take seriously, says Bruce Bartlett, former deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the U.S. Treasury Department.
For example, under a FairTax scheme: A worker now netting $800 per week would immediately get a $200 raise and start taking home the full $1,000 gross wage that he is paid; instead of paying income and payroll taxes, workers would pay their taxes when they buy things.
The FairTax would impose a 23 percent tax on all goods and services (this is not really correct, but for now we'll accept it at face value for analytical purposes).
Whether he is better off or not depends on what his effective tax rate is: Assuming he spends all his income and no more than that, he will be no worse off if he now pays 23 percent of his income in taxes. That is, his effective tax rate is 23 percent; in this case, the FairTax is a wash, the worker is no better off or worse off in terms of taxes than he is now.
But what if the worker is now paying less than 23 percent of his income in federal taxes? In this case, he is clearly worse off, says Bartlett: The prices of the things he buys will rise by more than his income rises from the elimination of income and payroll taxes. Conversely, if one is wealthy and in a tax bracket above 23 percent, that person would be much better off. His income and payroll taxes would fall by much more than the prices of goods and services he consumes would rise.
Source: Bruce Bartlett, "Why the FairTax Won't Work," Tax Notes, December 24, 2007.
For text:
NOTA
Having been thrashed on the issues, you're reduced to asking personal off topic questions hoping for something you can use as an ad hominem attack.
FT SOP
Several states have both income taxes and sales taxes. None of them have resorted to FT style dishonesty in setting out the respective rates.
At least you are not a MittWitt. I probably shouldn’t have called you a liar and coward but you are being kind of silly on this thread.
I haven’t read any of the Fair Tax books but you inspired me so I will be picking up a copy.
Good night fRiend.
It is called competition. It wouldn’t go away on day one. But if 10 companies sell a widget and all of a sudden, their cost goes down 20%, one or more of those companies will try to undercut the others until the price point is driven down by the amount roughly equal to the drop in costs. There are real world examples of this having happened. Buy the “Fair Tax Book”.
Not sure I understand your underlying point, but thanks for playing.
First rule is don’t trust anything that uses the term “fair”.
That's not what the Fair Tax folks claim. They claim when the income taxes disappear cost of goods to businesses will be lower and businesses will still continue to charge $1 for that milk with the 23 cent tax (that's how they get their 23%) coming out of that. It is claimed the tax will have no effect on prices.
I think most here can see the problem with that previous paragraph!
Let's not forget the "prebate". This is a government check that everyone will receive to cover the taxes on what the government deems to be the taxes paid on the necessities of life. Great... Make EVERYone a recipient of government largess!
A simple flat tax was a better idea, but that has no support right now.
“Both Kotillof and Jorgensen have since retracted the “22%” claim - they were the ones that that came up with the number. Please redo your homework, as you are embarrassing yourself.”
No they haven’t. What’s embarassing is for someone to throw out an allegation and then not be able to back it up with an acutual citation or quote.
While there has been much discussion on the topic, there has been no wholesale repudiation of the concept that the tax savings by the company would be passed along to the consumer. There’s also no reason to believe cost of compliance would not also be passed along. Yes, the price would still go up, that’s why they call it a tax, but as withholding would be returned to the employee, his pay would increase as well.
Nobody is saying it is a free lunch, the Fair Tax is revenue neutral. The point of the fair tax, is that it does not tax production, investment or savings.
You’re right, but they’ll never admit it...
This means there is a hidden agenda somewhere. I believe it is likely some people here are protecting their turf by picking at the FairTax. Lord knows there are a lot of people earning their livelihood in tax compliance. That is a major part of the expense of the IRS system.
So to those tax lawyers, tax accountants, and Turbotax code writers out there, I am sorry if the Fairtax would put you in the category of buggy whip makers. Some of you will find work in the inevitable (but smaller) bureaucracy of the FairTax. To the rest of you, welcome to the productive part of the American economy.
And I am going to spend the day trying to figure out how to pay the correct tax on some stock I sold last year. It was acquired in a company stock plan, which makes it a little more complicated. But that's OK, because we love the income tax so much.
Point taken. (at least for rational people)
I suspect you will be paying $0.385 tax on your item. Texas is not going to give up their piece.
Answer this..
Why have both Kotillkof and Jorgensen backed off their initial analysis and embedded tax rate assumptions?
You going to BooHoo to the mods on this post too?
Remember helping people take advantage of tax loopholes is BAD!
Replaced by two agencies.
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.