Posted on 05/12/2005 7:46:54 PM PDT by Your Nightmare
Members of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform on May 11 expressed concerns over the FairTax national retail sales tax, a plan that has emerged as an alternative with a major grass-roots push.
Panel chair Connie Mack, vice chair John B. Breaux, and other members worried the plan would be difficult to enforce, would be regressive, and would require a high rate in order to take in enough money to fund the government.
Breaux raised concerns that the proposed 23 percent (tax-inclusive) rate would not be sufficient to raise the revenue necessary to fund the government. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that it would take as much as a 57 percent (tax-exclusive) rate to be revenue-neutral. Further, Breaux said he thought exemptions that would be carved out to make the sales tax progressive would also complicate it.
Mack, who raised concerns similar to his fellow panelists', said he was "intrigued" by the plan. "But if it's such a great idea, why haven't other political entities around the world pursued it?" he asked.
Americans for Fair Taxation Executive Director Tom Wright emphasized that the plan emerged after "thorough academic research" and "thorough polling" The strong grass-roots push has resulted in some of the group's 600,000 members appearing at each of the panel's hearings and has inspired a large comment-writing campaign to the panel in support of the plan.
Sales tax advocates were among the 20 witnesses who gathered before the panel for a full day of testimony on tax reform proposals. Although the group has held several other hearings in Washington and around the country, the May 11 meeting was its first hearing on specific reform plans since Bush appointed the panel in January. The panel has been charged with identifying tax reform proposals that are progressive, encourage charitable giving and home purchases, and are revenue-neutral. The proposals are due by July 31.
Among the tax replacement and reform plans presented to the panel were the value added tax, consumption-based tax, and the flat tax, as well as proposals that would use the current income tax as the foundation.
Witnesses generally claimed that theirs was the fairest, simplest, most flexible, most transparent revenue-neutral proposal that would improve economic growth and savings while meeting the president's criteria of encouraging charitable giving and home buying. Witnesses presenting consumption-based plans praised their overhaul as taking millions of low-income taxpayers off the rolls, being easy to transition to on a worldwide basis, and including safeguards to prevent new loopholes that would result in increased complexity down the road.
Tax reform panel members, who agree the current tax system needs to be fixed, grilled witnesses without revealing whether they will ultimately endorse a consumption- or income-based tax or a different mixture of the two.
I mean you fabricated what CC said. Simple. Got it?
this is just another 9/11 commission. all talk, little action, no reform, more bureacracy.
"Tax law is a game we teach the rich how to play so they can stay rich. The IRS keeps changing the rules so we can keep getting rich teaching them."
John Grisham, The Firm
I mean you fabricated what CC said. Simple. Got it?Show me where. What's the post number.
Sales tax comes from the states. What is the federal sales tax now then?
What was the income tax before 1912 and the 16th amendment?
"expressed concerns "
That doesn't exactly sound like "picking it apart" as the title indicates.
There is nothing concrete in the article of any specifics that are incorrect in the FairTax, other than some "concerns".
"I'm all for the fair tax, but first they had better repeal the 16th amendment and destroy the IRS before making it law."
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I agree completely.
You'd certainly like to think that wouldn't you? BTW I wonder why the panel didn't have a presentation on the Nigntmare VAT or Nightmare Flat?
Were you previously occupied elsewhere or did they just overlook you? Or - in actual fact - perhaps they reazlized you don't have a plan at all but just like to naysay.
No, you really won't. Please read the bill itself (hr25) which you can obtain from http://thomas.loc.gov by checking the bill number choice and entering hr24 in the search block.
The FairTax bill goes into some of the provisions for transition. If you read the bill you will see there will be NO income tax (or IRS) and the 16th amendment is identified for repeal.
The FsairTax plan is actually the simplest of them all.
Actually, the FairTax rate is 29.87% tax-exclusive, but I think that we should express the Income Tax rates we now have as tax-exclusive also since a lot of posters pretend (when the FairTax is quoted as tax-exclusive) that they're "shocked, shocked" just like Claude Raines in the movie Casablanca when the police hit him up about illegal activities in his nightclub.
Let's see ... is there someone on the thread that is a math whiz??? Ummm ... gosh ... who comes to mind???
The tax panel was commissioned very lowkey in January 2005, if it was solely a political stunt, you would have heard more about it.
Plus they are going around the country listening to businesses, not sitting on their buts in D.C.
Your statement does not pass the smell test.
BTW I wonder why the panel didn't have a presentation on the Nigntmare VAT or Nightmare Flat?They had two on the VAT and four on the flat tax.
Still waiting on that post number.
I was surprised to see an adult make such a lame comment. It means he is not smart enough to figure out what is wrong with it but there must be something, else others would be using it.
Concur. But what do you expect from Washington? We have to retake our own destiny from these idiots and statists that control our lives.
Perhaps you missed this small detail my friend! Before the hearing started but after the C-Span cameras rolled, The CHAIRMAN of this panel greeted Tom, as in Tom Wright, by his first name. Indicating to me at least that the two of them are WELL aquainted.
That little fact may be insignificant to you but I'll bet it certianly isn't to a great many others!
That little fact may be insignificant to you but I'll bet it certianly isn't to a great many others!You're really feasting on crumbs.
If you are asking about the SS payments under the FairTax, then no, there is no payment on this (or any other sort of) income you receive.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
In principle I agree with the FairTax. However, in practice, there are a lot of concerns I have about it. First, it is regressive. And in light of the very progressive nature of our current tax system, it becomes ever more regressive, relatively speaking. Plus, what about the effects of any transitions on retailers?
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