Flat Tax or Fair Tax?

Townhall.com ^ | January 31, 2013 | Daniel J. Mitchell

[Joe Marine 76]

Here’s the answer on how SS is calculated: “The FairTax does NOT change the way social security benefits are determined. Employers (including the self-employed) will still be required to report wages to the Social Security Administration even though social security benefits will be paid from Fairtax revenues. The FairTax allocates FairTax revenues to general revenue (for general government programs) and to the social security trust fund. The amount of funds allocated is based on the amount of payroll taxes that would have been paid on the total wages reported by all employers as if the tax rate of 12.4 payroll tax were still in effect.”

Karen Walby
Director of Research
FairTax.org

I cannot find if SS is means tested; I don’t recall reading if it was in the two books which I gave to folks who were interested in Fairtax.

That being said, sir, I have NO obligations to persuade anybody to do anything and have not since I retired from the Marine Corps seventeen years ago.

If you don’t like the Fairtax, then don’t adhere to it or its concepts. And, no, you don’t have an obligation to “to read volumes on the subject” - (actually both books are rather short) - but if you have any intellectual curiosity about the Fairtax then by all means go for it. Buy one of the books or do research on-line as I have.

I have pointed you in the right direction; I’m not going to build a road for you.

Have a good day.

[Daveinyork]

Fine. You have no obligation to persuade. But don’t be surprised when your ideas are not implemented. Politicians need to feel the heat before they see the light.

I personally have no problem with either version of a flat rate tax. There is no moral justification for taxing people at different rates. However, neither flat rate tax will solve as many problems as their adherents claim. Only weaning people from dependence on and obedience to the government will do that. With the levels of government expenditures as they are, no tax system is going to be anything less than horrible.

Half of the voters vote for candidates who promise to steal from the other half, and the kleptomaniac vote provides a lot of heat for politicians.

[RayChuang88]

In the end, I support phasing out the income tax in favor of FairTax (H.R. 25/S. 122) starting the 2017 tax year, which gives time for all the merchants set up the tax collection system that has to work in all 50 states plus US territories.

Because FairTax no longer taxes the very process of earning money, that means the USA would become one of the most business-friendly countries on Earth, period. And that would means easily cutting the unemployment rate to around 5% (based on the 2008 Department of Labor definition) pretty easily--5% is essentially full employment level.

[ctdonath2]

Neither.
Flat tax: Feds should not be taxing citizens directly.
FairTax: don’t conscript business into being tax collectors, esp. in states that have no sales tax. And don’t give the Feds a way in to POS data-mining - you’ll regret creating that monster (far worse than the one from Jekyl Island).

Send each state a bill and let ‘em figure out how they want to pay it. IRS should be two guys printing bills and cashing a few dozen checks for a few days a year.