Rebate means you still have to come up with the money first, right?
Else, it would not be called a rebate. The tax should not be applied to commodities/necessities in the first place. That affects the lower income people immediately, to tax up front. Like i said in the paragraph following what you pasted, the poor would also have a larger check due to NO TAXES BEING TAKEN OUT in the first place! I kind of like that idea!
I am not against the concept of a national sales tax, I just want to see what they come up with first...
I do lean more to a flat tax of income, with no rebate/refund at all, take 10% from my income and leave me alone after that. We would all pay the same on income, and that is fair.
That's semantics. If you call it a prebate, would it mean any thing different ?
Checks would get issued to every household each month. The timing of when you purchase your necessities (before or after you get the check ?) is nobodys concern but your own.
Each household would register once, and again as circumstances change. New children, older kids move out, change of address, etc.
And those who want to drop off the screen completely wouldn't register in the first place.
The reason to avoid exemptions is it will short-circuit politicians and special interests from playing with the code to their advantage. An example : for many years in Texas kiln-fired portland cement was tax-exempt. Milk and bread are taxed but not "kiln-fired portland cement".
This is not something that should be repeated on the national scale.