TANSTAAFT!
(There aint no such thing as a FairTax)
Double digit taxation for single digit IQ's
*pinglist*
"Beauty fades, Power wanes, but stupid is forever."
(and pandering for votes is as ugly as Helen Thomas)
Posted on 04/19/2006 3:43:31 PM PDT by Bigun
Fair taxes for Texas
By U.S. Sen. John Cornyn
Many Texans understandably wait until the last week to file their federal tax returns. The experience is so unpleasant—and I'm not just talking about paying taxes due—that we tend to put it off as long as possible
With the mid-April filing deadline now behind us, let's take a moment to look at the monster we have created in the federal income tax. What started in 1913 as a small levy that affected only two percent of citizens has grown in complexity and seeming inequality. It increasingly frustrates almost everyone.
There are currently 325 separate forms that taxpayers might be required to complete. The code has become so complex that a majority of Americans now require professional help to file their taxes—and even those pros often make mistakes. We spend a total of $250 billion annually just to comply with tax laws, and more than six billion hours preparing our returns.
Here's another way to look at it. In 1955, there were 744,000 words in the IRS code. By 2000, this number had grown to 6.9 million. And since 1986, there have been more than 15,000 changes made to the tax code, many of them special provisions to benefit a small number of taxpayers.
The process seems designed to confuse even those who don't have to pay. Consider this deceptively simple directive on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) web site: "Even if you do not have to file a return, you should file one to get a refund of any Federal Income Tax withheld."
If someone is eligible for a refund, why would the IRS obscure the matter by even suggesting that filing a return was unnecessary?
It reminds me of some advice an accountant friend in Austin once said: "When it comes to the IRS, the answer is maybe, and that's final."
I've now come to the conclusion that our current tax system is in danger of collapsing under its own weight. It ought to be replaced by a much fairer and simpler process. That's why I'm a co-sponsor of the Fair Tax Act (S.25). If passed and signed by the President, the bill would significantly change the way we collect taxes in America.
The bill would eliminate most current major federal taxes—including the income tax, capital gains, all payroll taxes, estate, gift, corporate and self-employment taxes—and replace them with a national retail sales tax. Collection could be done through state systems, and the IRS would be significantly downsized and reformed.
Think about it—no Byzantine forms and laws to comprehend quarterly or annually. In their place: a simple sales tax on the cost of new goods and services.
To ensure a fair tax didn't penalize low-income Americans, everyone would receive a monthly "prebate" of the tax on essential goods and services.
This system would greatly simplify the collection process. It would eliminate the demand for expensive tax advisers who specialize in finding loopholes and exceptions in our complicated tax code. It would also negate measures such as the Alternative Minimum Tax that are sweeping up increasing numbers of middle-class taxpayers.
The Fair Tax idea has been talked about for decades. But there is increasing support for making a radical change, in the name of fairness and efficiency.
I've always believed the key to economic prosperity in our country is keeping taxes low for Americans and their businesses. That's the way to reward initiative, and to promote job creation and economic growth.
Reclaiming the reins of our runaway federal income tax system will help promote a strong economy. A national retail sales tax is a simple and viable alternative to our current federal income system.
Albert Einstein, a genius at analyzing complex scientific principles, once said: "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
Einstein died more than 50 years ago. What would he say about the system today?
Sen. Cornyn is a member of the following Senate Committees: Armed Services, Judiciary, Budget, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Joint Economic. He is also the chairman of the subcommittees on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship and Emerging Threats and Capabilities.
Hurrah senator Cornyn! Let's get it done!
TANSTAAFT!
(There aint no such thing as a FairTax)
Double digit taxation for single digit IQ's
*pinglist*
"Beauty fades, Power wanes, but stupid is forever."
(and pandering for votes is as ugly as Helen Thomas)
If anyone would like to be added to this ping list let me know.
John Linder in the House(HR25) & Saxby Chambliss Senate(S25) offer a comprehensive bill to kill all income and SS/Medicare payroll taxes outright and replace them with with a national retail sales tax administered by the states.
H.R.25,S.25
A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national retail sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.Refer for additional information:
Reason # 20 why the income tax suks:
The tax code allows for so many different retirement plans (IRA, Roth, 401(k), SEP, 403(b), Coverdell, Keough, etc.) that only a maniac would think it makes any sense. All have different rules, all have different eligibilities. WTF? There isn't a rat in any lab in any research facility in the country that could find its way through that maze. And many of those plans are very generous and many are not. How about one simple plan for all? Hmmm? Is that too much to ask?
Unless it repeals the 16th Amendment, we'll wind up with both and income and a sales tax.
The FairTax is not the solution. And because it allows the federal government to confiscate the wealth of American citizens less intrusively and more efficiently, it will become part of the problem—the problem of the ever-increasing, ever-intruding, ever-destroying welfare/warfare state. The FairTax is a fraud. Yet Boortz ties rejection of the FairTax to believing that America is a great country because of its government, "as so many politicians do." Politicians who oppose the FairTax do so because they "thrive on dependency."
The antidote to the fraud of the FairTax is a good dose of the wisdom of Murray Rothbard: "There can be no such thing as 'fairness in taxation.' Taxation is nothing but organized theft, and the concept of a 'fair tax' is therefore every bit as absurd as that of 'fair theft.'"
Boortz believes that the abolition of the income tax will make the bad day of April 15 "just another beautiful spring day." With its unsubstantiated claims, ridiculous lies, and numerous problems, the FairTax will ensure that everyday is a bad day, not just April 15.
The sheer insanity of these retirement plans became clear to me at a 'seminar' a few years ago where they invite you to dinner at a nice restaurant and then try to solicit you for your investments.
As they were explaining the 'have-tos' and 'musts' and 'can'ts', I got up and left. I thought that this was my money, but learned that I had to jump through hoops to keep the government from taking it and pay someone to help me keep it.
Give me the FairTax.
Yep! And from all appearances you should be an expert on stupid!
You must be an IRS employee.
The point that you are missing here is that the Fair Tax would give ME the power to give MY MONEY to the government. It empowers me.
So what is your solution, no taxes at all?
Unless it repeals the 16th Amendment, we'll wind up with both and income and a sales tax.
By that reasoning, since we do have th 16th amendment, and have had for nearly a hundred years now, we should already have both a national retail sales tax and income taxes.
You notice we don't. The American electorate won't stand for it, in the past, nor in the future. Congress Critters are well aware of that fact, otherwise we would have had retail sales taxes plus income taxes already. You are aware that such has been proposed several time in the last century are you not? No such proposal has been acted on because Congress Critters like to remain in their cushy jobs.
Sorry, history and the American electorate flat disagrees with your assessment.
If anything history of the amendment proposals regarding income taxes, we will never see prohibition of income taxes or even repeal of the 16th amendment which would merely require that income from rents, and personal property such as bonds and stocks be taxed in accord with the rule of apportionment. With the income tax system in place the 2/3rds requirment that Congress Critters aggree to proposing such amendment just isn't going to happen without a viable alternative tax system in place.
Enacting a national retail sales tax replacing all federal income an payroll taxes is the first necessary step to seeing the prohibition of taxation of incomes by consitutional amendment.
If he's also against illegals, and for the 2nd Amendment, sign him up. I'll vote for him in '08.
"-- The socialistic and anti-social character of the income tax is inherent.
Embedded in the philosophy of the law is the destructive principle, so that once it is in effect the economic and political consequences are inevitable. The principle of the income tax is the denial of private property.
There is nothing in the Sixteenth Amendment, there is nothing in the principle of the income tax, which puts a limit on the amount the State may demand, and hence the implication is clear that the individual's absolute right of private property is denied.
The theory of republican government, that its powers are derived from the will of the people, is no safeguard against this denial of private property.
Assuming that the Sixteenth Amendment at the time of its enactment did express the will of the people, every one of them, the substance and effect of income taxation was to destroy the will of any subsequent generation for modification or revocation.
It is unlike any other law. For the denial of the right of private property is in essence the denial of the right of the individual to himself. He is no longer a free person if he is not free to keep and enjoy the products of his labors. --"
Excerted from From Solomon’s Yoke to the Income Tax by Frank Chodorov
He is and I'll try!
Just watched several hours of the History of Britain. Much of that history included civil wars over taxation. Oh yeah, and the Boston Tea Party.
If something doesn't change soon, we may be following those in same steps, right here.
Way to go Texas and way to go Senator!!
As for what the American electorate won't stand for? Precious little. As long as they get to watch Desparate Housewives and American Idol, why should they care? They may grouse a bit at first, but they quickly quiet down. Watch what happens after the amnesty bill is passed when Congress gets back. And, by the way....it was thought, back in 1900, that them American people would never stand for a permanent income tax. Look how well that's turned out!
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