Posted on 08/28/2007 4:39:18 PM PDT by Bigun
The People Must Demand The Fair Tax
By Doug Patton
August 28, 2007
Last year, during the United States Senate race in Nebraska, Republican challenger Pete Ricketts suggested that every option must be considered when looking at ways to reform our federal tax system. Among the list of alternatives Ricketts said should be on the table was a national sales tax known simply as the "Fair Tax."
The Democrat incumbent, U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, launched an attack on his opponent that was, at best, distorted and condescending, at worst, irrational demagoguery. One would have thought that Ricketts had suggested stealing all the assets of the poor and handing them over to Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.
Recently, the panel of pundits on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," discussing the apparent rise in popularity of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign message, scoffed at Huckabee's unabashed promotion of the Fair Tax.
George Will, the token "conservative" on the panel, brushed it aside with the disbelief of an elitist who cannot understand the burden of the average worker who would love to take home his or her entire paycheck, as the Fair Tax would allow him or her to do. Will opined that Huckabee's second place showing in the Iowa straw poll was even more amazing given the fact that "he supported a national sales tax of thirty percent, which means that if you buy a one million dollar house, you'll be writing a check to the government for three hundred thousand dollars." Of course, the others on the panel readily agreed.
The elites of this country, who buy those million-dollar homes, are not enamored with the Fair Tax. They would be if they took the time to understand its appeal.
The Fair Tax would replace all federal income taxes. No more federal withholding. No more Social Security withholding. No more Medicare withholding. No more stealing from the paychecks of American workers before they even see it and then pretending to give them a refund, without interest, at the end of the year. No more saving receipts for tax deductions. No more IRS audits. No more April 15th.
Instead, the Fair Tax would put us in control. All consumer items would be taxed. Business purchases would not. By allowing us to make the determination about what we buy and when we buy it, the ability of our legislators to manipulate our behavior is eliminated. That is why the elites don't like it. They can't control the public's spending habits under such a system.
The current federal tax system is broken. It cannot be fixed. Since the inception of the federal income tax with the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913, federal corruption and control have turned it into a Frankenstein monster that torments the people and serves the special interests. A tax on a person's income is a tax on production, and as Ronald Reagan once said, "Whatever you tax, you get less of."
Because the poor are forced to spend a disproportionate percentage of their resources to cover the tax on necessities, the Fair Tax hits them the hardest. That issue can be addressed by simply issuing a "prebate" check each month to every household in the country. Unlike disingenuous tax credits, deductions, exemptions and other loopholes in the current income tax code, a prebate check is a clean, honest method of covering the sales tax on food, clothing and shelter - up to the poverty level.
Of course, removing the income tax on corporations will reduce the cost of everything we buy, since corporations don't pay taxes. They simply pass them along to consumers. The Fair Tax plan calculates that removing the corporate income tax will result in a reduction in the cost of virtually every consumer item on the market. In fact, it will just about offset the tax on those products. Imagine paying the same price for something but having your entire paycheck to buy it.
And then there are the billions of dollars that flow untaxed through our economy today: drug dealers, prostitutes, pornographers, foreign tourists. Imagine how much revenue could be raised simply by taxing the things those people consume.
There would be no more audits, no more justifying deductions, and April 15th would become just another spring day. But only if the people stand up to the elites and demand it.
Your whole blurb is so full of errors, one hardly knows where to begin.
The Fair tax will have many more eligible families than SSA to distribute monthly checks to
"eligible?" If you breath, you are "eligible" - whether you make 20K a year or 20million.
the Prebate is based SOLELY on the number of people in the household. That is ALL that is reported.
You report NO income, no place of employment, nada. Every household gets a prebate calibrated solely on the number of people in the house - said prebate to offset the tax for the necessities: food, clothing, etc - We wont be out any money for the sales tax until after that living level has been passed...and in addition, we'll have much more money too spend as not one thin dime will be deducted from paychecks.
In addition, anything bought secondhand, ANYTHING, will NOT be taxed...including a used car or 'used' house.
Sure, the millionaires don't like it. They will finally be paying their FAIR share - no loopholes. And the tax lawyers, the tax accountants and the tens of thousands now employed by the IRS will scream into the night against the FAIR TAX.
All you one-issue immigration folk should love the FAIR TAX - illegals wont get a prebate check but will be paying the sales tax right from the first dollar - ditto the drug czars, etc.
So, is it that you just haven't really read/understood the FAIR TAX bill or you fall into a category like one of the above?
It seems to me that the fair tax has to raise as much or more money than the current income tax system does. So the question is, who will benefit and who will get slammed?
Right now I pay a 15% tax on my investment profits but under the Fair Tax plan I will pay 30% up front for the security and then hope for a 10% gain each year. So for an average investment it will take me 4 to 5 years to break even, if the stock does well? That sounds like a prescription for disaster. All new investing will immediately cease and the Great Depression will look like a time of great prosperity by comparison.
GG. Not this again.
READ THE BILL
To clarify your objections:
Religious organizations aren’t “consumers” so they wouldn’t pay the FairTax any more than any other business would. The pretax costs for houses would go down (not by a full 23%, but by some amount) so you wouldn’t be increasing the overall price 30%; furthermore, the tax would only apply to new housing. Existing housing would go up in value as a result of the tax premium on new housing (thus benefitting current homeowners), but again, not by the full amount of the FairTax, so you end up with slightly higher home prices, which can be paid with higher incomes. And medical expenses are taxed now, in the sense that they have embedded taxes built into them and they are paid (for the most part) with post-income and payroll tax dollars.
As you already understand, any exemptions open the door to the same type of funny business and class warfare the politicians play today with all our current taxes. That’s why the only politicians who get my support (and the support of the other FairTaxers, presumably) are those who support the FairTax as written, without exemptions.
Plus, if you make so much money that it puts you out of reach of any prebate, rebate, or whatever you want to call it, you wouldn’t have to file anything.
Only those who think they are eligible will have to apply to whatever they call what takes over the offices of the The FTRB, (Flat tax rebate brouhaha)
Let's not lose sight of the fact that Mr. Will is correct about the transaction details: If a retail transaction for a house occurred and the sale price was $1,000,000, then the buyer would have to pay $298,700 to the federal government for the FairTax on that transaction.
If the prebate was implemented as a debit card that reduced the tax amounts up to the poverty level as the purchases were made.
Depends on how much you spend vs how much you DON'T spend. Why would you have to pay anything on investment profits? You pay only when you spend them.
The 'fair' tax is a joke. A recent writeup in the WSJ put it where it belongs. However, the plus is it will create a whole new society that doesn't report sales and/or purchases to the government at all.
the FAIR TAX proposal didn't just fall from the sky = it's been in the works for years.
The studies show that there will actually be MORE money going to Washington, what with the illegals, drug monies, (who wont get a offset prebate and WILL pay taxes, finally, on every dime they spend.
The studies and calculations have been done. When in doubt, read up on a thing rather than just assume.
OMG! Good thing nothing like that happens now..../s
A flat tax would be much better than the system we have now. The only ones who don't like it are the ones who steal your tax dollars through crooked politicians.
All new investing will immediately cease and the Great Depression will look like a time of great prosperity by comparison.
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You will not pay a sales tax on stocks or bonds (you will however pay 23% on that new BMW M3 you buy with the profits),, with a 0% corporate sales tax rate all the companies that went offshore with a HQ in the Caymans and such will come back to the US, with workers receiving their FULL paycheck and with the freedom from tax bookkeeping I expect huge and prolonged increases in GDP growth; furthermore to compete with the US it is very likely that other nations will adopt the same or similar plans ... a rising tide lifts all ships.
Sadly enough apparently most of us want to be strangled and pay for it to boot.
Let’s tax at corporate rates all non profit organizations that have positive cash flows or capital gains in excess of current operating expenses. Between the universities and major charities that should cover the uninsureds and welfare.
The studies show that there will actually be MORE money going to Washington,....The studies and calculations have been done.So you have a link to the study or studies "that shows there will actually be MORE money going to Washington"?
The most recent study I've seen, by the Fairtax economist Kotlikoff, says the 23% rate isn't quite enough...It also says there wouldn't be 100% paychecks...at least not in the Fairtax study.
The write-up was by Bill Bartlett who has railed against the FairTax for years - most of his protests are answered in the "rebuttals" section on the FairTax website.
One of Bartlett's claims is that the FairTax was created by Scientologists. That is a flat out lie.
What kind of “securities” are you buying that are considered new end-user goods and services? Stocks, bonds, etc. wouldn’t be taxed under the FairTax, and neither would capital gains from their appreciation.
Once again, if you breath, you are "eligible" for the prebate which is calibrated SOLELY on the number of people in the household - and that is all you have to report.
The prebate goes to you whether you make 20K or 20 million. It's calibrated to cover the sales tax on amount of money spent for food, clothing, and other necessities up to a predetermined poverty level.
After that, how much one pays out in sales tax is pretty much up to them. You want a new yacht? Pay the tax. You want a secondhand boat/car/existent home = NO TAX. Repeat after me: NO TAX on any secondhand purchases.
The FAIR TAX is a consumption tax. The prebate ckeck will cover the taxes for necessities. Thereafter, it up the consumer what taxes they pay.
This means the millionaires will actually be paying their FAIR SHARE - no loopholes.
The illegals wont get the prebate check and will be paying the tax from dollar one - gotta love it. Ditto the drug trafficers etc.
Sound pretty dam* FAIR to me.
And the freedom of no KGB/IRS - how can anyone not want that?
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