[sklar]

Same old arguments “it hits the middle class and the poor the hardest”

Help me understand.

The poorest taxpayers pay 10% Federal Income tax. Under Cain's plan wouldn't it be 9% PLUS a 9% Fed Sales Tax that currently doesn't exist? = a rise for the poorest taxpayers from 10% to 18% give or take? Thanks

[Osage Orange]

The "poorest" Income Tax payers don't pay anything right now. In fact they NET money from the Fed's.

Hell you can make near $40k and have 4 kids...and a wife...and you will get back MORE than you paid in.

[DTxAg]

The poorest taxpayers pay 10% Federal Income tax. Under Cain's plan wouldn't it be 9% PLUS a 9% Fed Sales Tax that currently doesn't exist? = a rise for the poorest taxpayers from 10% to 18% give or take? Thanks

It's not just "the poor". A family of four at the median family income of $49,500 pays no income taxes because of child credits, etc. I've shown the numbers elsewhere, but under Cain's plan their purchasing power after 9-9-9 drops from around $46,000 to around $41,000. That'll go over real well.

[Reily]

Best thing for you to do is go to Cain's web site, it's fully explained there. Also it makes it very plain(I don't understand why Cain doesn't point this out!)that the 9-9-9 plan is Phase 1, a transition to the Fair Tax, a national sales tax. It would be determined later exactly what that percentage should be, I have seem number from others that put that percentage anywhere from 15% to 24%. Because it eliminates the double taxation on corporations product prices should fall dramatically. Also it encourages saving, we have the lowest rate of saving in the western world, it would be a huge boon to capital formation.

[manc]

That is my MIL and wife’s question.

Though it will never get passed anyway or I doubt it .

[justsaynomore]

No. Everyone pays 15.3% payroll tax.

Employers match half, but that is considered part of compensation, so if that half is taken out, then compensation goes up. So indirectly, employees pay it.

Sales tax is a different animal. The Fair Tax HR25 is well researched and it shows that there is 22% embedded taxes in everything you buy, including food, including medicine. Fair Tax takes embedded taxes to zero. 999 also reduces the embedded taxes. So the end result is yes, they will pay 9% but the item itself is reduced.

Some people take issue with the food and medicine being taxed, but again, they don’t take in to account the reduction due to embedded taxes . If that becomes an issue, they could provide a prebate and offset it somewhere else , but I would think that needs to be the only exception because you do not need to start opening up a ton of other deductions, or then it ends up a mess.

PLUS, used goods are not taxed at all. If you are the poorest of the poor, there really isn’t a need to buy a new car anyway, right?

There is a welfare to work idea called “empowerment zones”, that has more deductions to get people off welfare into jobs.

I will say this - this whole thing has really gotten me to thinking just how comfortable we have made it in the US to stay “poor”.

[nonliberal]

You are forgetting that there is a 9% payroll tax that would replace the current 15.6% payroll tax. That is a tax cut.

There are currently 23% sales taxes built into the prices of all goods. Cain would reduce that to 9%, thereby reducing prices. That is a tax cut.

Income tax would be a flat 9%. That is a tax cut.