[Petronski]

Apples to oranges? No. This is not a before v. after scenario. I'm talking about a day after you have succeeded in killing the income tax and instituting the 'fair tax.' At that point, I am making a choice between an existing home or new construction.

Taxing the new construction but not the existing home provides a significant disincentive to new construction. I'm guessing you don't work in the trades, or in logging, or manufacturing of construction goods....

[Final Authority]

I think it humorous that the discussion here is that the new sales tax will be in exclusion to the income tax. Even Greenspan said that there will be both as the elimination of the income tax is "problematic" to use his words.

Those who are shilling for the so-called fairtax is doing the work of the socialists in the name of "fairness", (can anyone here on this thread produce the legal definition of "fairness"). The world socialists have been supporting the idea of a BIG, or a Basic Income Guarantee for some time now and they are convinced that the NRST idea with a personal rebate is just the vehicle to set the social agenda politically. They envision the rebates being legislatively tinkered with to advance the payments for those who are deemed poor and eliminate rebates for those who are deemed rich, in the name of "fairness" and progressivity, of course. With the IRS still in place because the income tax will not be abandoned the government will have all of the personal financial info to carry out such a scenario.

The government will never abandon the income tax because the liberals won't let it happen because how else would one tax an American living on foreign soil, or tax old wealth (death taxes) or tax so-called unearned income, or tax windfalls like a signing bonus or the like?

The problem here is we will have both a sales and income tax if the "fairness" folks have their way and we will all suffer for their zealotry.

[CSM]

What percentage of used homes/buildings are abandoned with this big market drive to purchase new construction? Would the population just stop expanding?

[phil_will1]

"I'm talking about a day after you have succeeded in killing the income tax and instituting the 'fair tax.' At that point, I am making a choice between an existing home or new construction."

It may interest you to know that there is a transition rule that enables businesses which hold inventory on the day of implementation to take a credit which approximates the amount of imbedded taxes in that inventory. The idea is to enable retailers to pass along cost savings from the removal of the old system on day 1 of the FairTax regime.

"Taxing the new construction but not the existing home provides a significant disincentive to new construction. I'm guessing you don't work in the trades, or in logging, or manufacturing of construction goods...."

No, I don't. I'm in the mortgage business.