Posted on 04/16/2006 7:49:45 AM PDT by Eaglewatcher
The FairTax replaces the income tax and all other federal taxes with a national consumption tax. The FairTax is levied only once, at the point of purchase on new goods and services.
The group admits it will be difficult for legislators to face down entrenched special interest groups, but they initially proposed replacing the current system with U.S. Senate bill S. 25 and U.S. House of Representatives bill H.R. 25. The next step would be to repeal the 16th Amendment to the constitution allowing the Federal government to levy an income tax.
Signatories to the original petition include noted academic economists and practitioners who feel the current tax code cannot simply be fixed. The current regs include 54,000 pages, approximately 2.8 million words of mind-numbing rules, exceptions and special interest loopholes. This tangled web would be replaced by a simple national sales tax similar to that paid to the county, city or, in the case of our own Hawthorne TDD, the subdivision.
But what about poor people? The FairTax provides every family with a rebate of the sales tax on spending up to the federal poverty level (plus an extra amount to prevent any marriage penalty). The rebate is paid monthly in advance. It allows a family of four to spend $25,660 tax free each year. The rebate for a married couple with two children is $492 per month ($5,902 annually). Therefore, no family pays federal sales tax on essential goods and services and middle-class families are effectively exempted on a big part of their annual spending.
(Excerpt) Read more at digitalburg.com ...
Every family in America recieving a monthly federal entitlement check. The "fair" tax dream.
But YOU, of course, can not just be foolish!
The Devil, as they say, is always in the details.
I agree.
Now what is your answer to the question?
You say you hate the current tax system, you however have not given us any details, or even a general discription for that matter, concerning the tax reform to the current system you do support.
Where are your details, being against something, without an alternative, is to just leave what you hate in place.
In short it appears you support the status quo with inaction and lack of an alternative. Moan and groan, snipe a proposals for change and do nothing appears to be your choice from what I see so far.
No, I don't agree.
I think the federal income tax/IRS is an absolute nightmare, inspired originally by the Communist manifesto.
This from one who claims all he gets from the fair taxers is ridicule. Once again you prove my point. The derisive comments on these threads always start with the SQL's. The ideas on these threads ALWAYS start and stop with the FT's.
Okay, you don't like that. You'd rather low income Americans receive an EITC I guess. I'm trying to understand where rebating sales taxes actually paid is worse than tax credits paid in cash when there is no tax liability.
And btw, everyone gets the pre-bate - even "Jim" Gates as someone earlier pointed out.
BTTT
It was your idea, not mine.
Not as far as I know.
It seems that isn't very far!
Regarding bureaucracy, you are an optimist. The rebate will become a vehicle to promote social policy & redistribute wealth, just as the current tax code does now.
Already, the so-called marriage penalty is a part of this legislation. Social policy manipulation! And it hasn't even passed yet!
No huge bureaucracy? Who is gonna record & keep track of all those births, deaths, marriages, divorces, income changes. Address changes alone will keep an army busy. What about people who challenge the amount of rebate? Who do you call when "the dog ate my rebate check"?The gov't will need people & offices to respond to these things - bureaucracy.
And since the rebate will be paid monthly, wont any changes to your "rebate status" need to be reported promptly to the new IRS, meaning many people will have to file multiple status reports every year, meaning even more bureaucrats to continuously process this never ending paperwork. Tax filing - once a month? Not for me!
And what about people who cheat the system? Its real hard to cheat the clerk at the store - either pay for your purchases, or leave empty handed. You might think beer should be exempt as a food (I do, too), but if you don't pay the tax, you aren't taking home the beer. No room for millions of cheaters there.
Much easier to cheat a system that must track numerous facts about every citizen in the US - marital status, age, # of kids, income, dependents, etc. So, we're gonna need an investigative & enforcement agency - more bureaucracy, & the WORST kind!
Can't you see this is the old system, in reverse? It will be just as corrupt, bureaucratic, & hated as the current system.
I will never support a tax system where there is a direct exchange of money between the individual citizen & government. Anytime this occurs, the gov't & pols uses this to manipulate the people for political purposes, which is contrary to Lincoln's "of the people, by the people, for the people".
If the Fair Tax ever gets into the national spotlight, most of the contention will center on the rebate, as greedy pols always gravitate to the source of money & power. Watch & see! Hopefully, that will prove the flawed rebate provision, & it will be tossed.
As to exemptions, you confuse our current income tax exemptions, which are nothing by blatant social manipulation & wealth redistribution, with sales tax exemptions, such as food, that would be applied EQUALLY to every purchaser. Nothing could be fairer, or more democratic. From day one, a rebate will be neither.
Appearences can be deceiving. Do you really believe that one needs a detailed plan for survival to realize they do not want to cease to exist.
That's no excuse for trading on nightmare for another.
Perhaps you just can not see that far.
You want everyone on the dole. That's better?
Do you really believe that one needs a detailed plan for survival to realize they do not want to cease to exist.
All I see in your words are no ideas, no plan, and no way out of the morass of the current income/payroll tax system.
You would rather have something to bitch about than actually do anything to change the current system.
What sense is there in jumping from one "morass" into another?
The Fair Tax plan is a great idea, except for the rebate.
Here's why.
Look at the 4th para of your excerpt.
First sentence - a plea for wealth redistribution. If the gov't wants to help the poor - fine - but don't hang this booger on the nose of the Fair Tax.
2nd & 3rd sentences - the gov't is gonna send EVERY family in the US a check EVERY month! Does ANYONE else see the gigantic bureaucratic mess this will be. Need I remind you how long it takes to get an income tax refund.
2nd, 4th & 5th sentences - implied here is there will be "entitlements" to certain families based on marriage status & number of dependents. That seems reasonable. But how about more rebate if a family member is disabled, has health problems, or any of a million other reasons the pols will give for manipulating who gets what.
Sending monthly checks to everyone which are of different amounts based on entitlements is exactly the same thing as taking less money in income taxes based on exemptions, but instead of answering to the gov't once a year, with the rebate it is virtually every month.
Based on this paragraph, EVERY family in the US is gonna have to file a change of info report to the gov't virtually EVERY month.
Examples:
Grandma moved in with us.
New Baby.
Grandma died.
Johnny Jr. finished school & moved out.
Johnny Jr. couldn't find a job & moved back in.
Johnny's girl got preg. & moved in.
We all had to move to a new house.
....................
And to keep those checks coming to the right address, in the right amount, you had better notify the Internal Rebate System of your changes - pronto. Then just hope your paperwork is not processed on Monday or Friday!
A fairer system would be to exempt food, shelter, utilities, & medical from sales & use taxes. This system has been used sucessfully in some states with sales tax. Today's cash registers automatically apply the tax as required & note this on the receipt.
Please see my post # 72 for more on all this.
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