[Zon]

As I see it the individual does determine what they spend on necessities, but the government determines how much the check should be by multiplying the poverty level times the tax rate and dividing by 12 for each month, thus an individual or family may be rebated more or less than they spend on necessities.

Here's how I see it:

The prebate check for a one person household is $170. At the NRST rate of 23% how many purchasing dollars does that cover? The person can purchase $739.10 worth of new goods and services a month. The 23% retail sales tax paid on the purchase of $738.10 worth of new goods and services is $170.

Only the individual knows what is a necessity for himself or herself. It may be groceries; it maybe restaurant meals; it may be tobacco products; it may be medicine; it may be a new bicycle; it may be a new Kirby vacuum cleaner; it may be booze; it may be needle point; it may be a new puppy; it may be new tires for the car; it may be car insurance; it may be lawn care service; it may be jewelry; it maybe a snowmobile suit; it may be a computer; it may be a washing machine; it may be baseball season tickets; it may be ________. Anything and everything that is sold as a new item retail a person may consider a necessity.

[Technogeeb]

Here's how I see it:

The prebate check for a one person household is $170. At the NRST rate of 23% how many purchasing dollars does that cover? The person can purchase $739.10 worth of new goods and services a month. The 23% retail sales tax paid on the purchase of $738.10 worth of new goods and services is $170

So you admit that the goverment handout has nothing to do with "necessities", but is instead merely an offset to the retail tax rate. If so, then a more honest solution would be to simply adjust the rate to a lower value.

it may be tobacco products; it may be medicine; it may be a new bicycle; it may be a new Kirby vacuum cleaner; it may be booze; it may be needle point; it may be a new puppy; it may be new tires for the car; it may be car insurance; it may be lawn care service; it may be jewelry; it maybe a snowmobile suit; it may be a computer; it may be a washing machine; it may be baseball season tickets; it may be ________. Anything and everything that is sold as a new item retail a person may consider a necessity

And you want a government handout to pay for the taxes you want imposed on these "necessities".

[rolling_stone]

I see your point of view, but there is the small possibility of an individual or family being rebated more than they spend on new necessities, a self sufficent hunter/fisherman/farmer living basically offf the land and being thifty by buying as much used articles as possible....

I see there is no perfect solution, but doing away with the rebate and it's administrative costs seems the easiest way to go. Since the rebate only applies to legal residents what about illegals and tourists?

Unfortunately, the rebate seems to be a pacifier for the socialist lefts and a necessary evil to make it politically palatable. I would accept it readily over what we have now.

As you state there would be only two items to fiddle with, the amount of rebate and amount of tax, far better than the thousands of sections of tax code for special interests & resulting political payoffs.