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Fair Tax Act Needs Passage Right Away
Daily Herald ^ | October 5, 2007 | Peter G. Malone

Posted on 10/09/2007 5:27:15 AM PDT by Man50D

Ron Petrucci's Sept. 24 letter addressing Charles Firth is right on a number of points. We have been running more than an $800 billion trade deficit. That can't go on for very long. Ron says we're a debtor nation and we are.

Our manufacturing continues to move overseas to "more tax friendly" locations. We can't exist by providing each other services. Picture everyone doing their neighbor's laundry. We need to produce products to exist.

What Ron neglected to say is that the reason for that migration is our tax system. Federal taxes and associated compliance costs comprise an average of 25.9 percent of prices of our goods and services. Imported goods and services arrive at our shores essentially tax-free, because most foreign governments encourage exports by rebating their taxes at their borders. We don't do that.

When we try to sell there, they add their taxes to our prices, so our goods and services end up bearing double taxes. American companies have a raw deal both ways. That's why they have trouble competing.

There is an answer, though in the form of HR 25, The Fair Tax Act. That bill is in the House ways and means committee. It is the most thoroughly researched tax bill ever.

For the second time, a group of noted economists recently wrote a letter to Congress and the president, urging them to pass it and sign it into law.

The bill already has more cosponsors than any other tax bill in 80 years. It is a grass-roots proposal. It will pass only if enough citizens support it and tell their representatives. If passed, the current federal tax system would be replaced by a national retail sales tax applied at the final retail sale and collected by the states.

Net retail prices paid would be about the same. Revenue raised would be about the same. Collecting a sales tax is much more efficient than collecting an income tax, it provides a steady revenue flow and everyone would pay.

It needs to pass now, though, before this president leaves office, because no first-term president will entertain changing the tax system, and Social Security will run out of liquid assets at about the end of the next president's first term.

Check the proposal out at www.fairtax.org


TOPICS: Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: 110th; fair; fairtax; scam; tax
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To: untrained skeptic

...harmful to a great number of things... first and foremost... logic.

If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Period.


221 posted on 10/09/2007 3:04:15 PM PDT by xcamel (FDT/2008)
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To: ejonesie22

Don’t be too quick to identify with those that affirm your confusion. Let your confusion work itself out. You will get clear.

This guy tried to BS on previous threads, he does not get it, he does not WANT to get it. Even though it was explained in detail to him and even though he was caught in a blatant lie, he had no remorse.

Here are some threads to show you are dealing with a BS artist:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1887973/posts?page=272#272

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1887973/posts?page=277#277

And here’s where he got called on what he stepped in:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1887973/posts?page=282#282


222 posted on 10/09/2007 3:11:53 PM PDT by Hostage (Fred Thompson will be President.)
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To: ejonesie22

Proof positive that if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with BS.

(ACPOTI)


223 posted on 10/09/2007 3:19:49 PM PDT by xcamel (FDT/2008)
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To: Hostage
I mean more paperwork? Huh? Retailers already print receipts for every transaction. Receipt machines have an easy code access to add a sales tax. And you’re talking about some absurd comparison as payroll to transactions?

Employers' payroll systems calculate withholding rates automatically too. The Fair Tax doesn't remove companies requirements to report earnings, savings, capital and all those things to the SEC and shareholders. Once they do all the accounting that have to do anyway, conforming to the current income tax isn't a big step. There are definitely a lot of tax rules they work to follow to provide some tax benefits for research and depreciation of capital assets, but those aren't huge tasks by any means.

With a sales tax the added number of transactions doesn't really add a lot of work for retailers. But it makes it a lot harder for auditors to audit the system to make sure that the retailer is really collecting all the taxes, because there are far more transactions involved that just withholding income from each employee every two weeks.

The Fair Tax also adds to the problem of auditing by not taxing the sale of used items, so auditors have to make sure that the retailer isn't claiming that new goods it sells were purchased used and then resold, and there will be a big market for used goods since they avoid the 30% sales tax.

224 posted on 10/09/2007 3:21:34 PM PDT by untrained skeptic
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To: untrained skeptic

They really want you to believe that the same person who can’t charge you corectly for a CD at the music store is now in charge of federal tax collection....


225 posted on 10/09/2007 3:26:13 PM PDT by xcamel (FDT/2008)
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To: xcamel

well he can’t audit you and ruin your life forever unlike the IRS.

What if we had a sales tax and a business tax with no income tax?


226 posted on 10/09/2007 3:31:50 PM PDT by ari-freedom (I am for traditional moral values, a strong national defense, and free markets.)
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To: untrained skeptic

Well gee I guess you were led to believe the accounting profession would go away with passage of the FairTax.

Baloney!

Accountants have come out for the FairTax. They make more money in business planning and forecasting than they ever do in tax filings.

And as for all the accounting functions to generate financials, you don’t have to be a publicly traded company to realize that basic accounting forms the backbone of every successful business.

As for your comments on ‘making it harder’ for auditors, I will leave that gem untouched and send it to my contact list as I am sure it will get more than a few chuckles from those that actually do audits.

As for used items, if Home Depot, Walmart, -insert favorite retailer here-, try and sell products as ‘used’, I think their managements will be replaced in the time it takes to turn the lights out.

But there will be a transition period for existing inventories so I’ll give you a quarter point for mentioning the subject.


227 posted on 10/09/2007 3:37:19 PM PDT by Hostage (Fred Thompson will be President.)
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To: ari-freedom

Sales tax auditors in NY are 5 times more rabid than any IRS lackey.


228 posted on 10/09/2007 3:38:08 PM PDT by xcamel (FDT/2008)
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To: Hostage; ejonesie22
Yeah, ejonesie22, don't listen to me - I got Nike's profit wrong. I understated it by 8% whereas Hostage understated it by only 5%. That makes me a liar, but not him.

But he didn't tell you that he overstated Corporate Income Tax at 35% when reports show the average is closer to 25%. I was going to let that go, but since he's nitpicking, I might as well point out that he also makes mistakes lies.

229 posted on 10/09/2007 3:38:37 PM PDT by robertpaulsen
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To: robertpaulsen; ejonesie22

Corporate taxation was not overstated.

As for your excuse of being in error, it was not an error but an attempt to discredit in which you ended up discrediting yourself. You had every opportunity to do your research and get your homework right. But you decided it was far more important to BS your way through the argument.

And that’s precisely what the rest of your cohort does, BS their way through it.


230 posted on 10/09/2007 3:49:52 PM PDT by Hostage (Fred Thompson will be President.)
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To: robertpaulsen; ejonesie22
You have to feel sorry for him - the only way he can make himself feel good about his delusions is to denigrate others.
231 posted on 10/09/2007 3:56:39 PM PDT by xcamel (FDT/2008)
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To: xcamel
yeah but they won't go after consumers. only the evil mom and pops.

232 posted on 10/09/2007 4:06:22 PM PDT by ari-freedom (I am for traditional moral values, a strong national defense, and free markets.)
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To: Hostage
"Corporate taxation was not overstated."

You used 35%. According to cbpp.org/10-16-03tax.htm:

"During the 1990s, corporations as a group paid an average of 25.3 percent of their profits in federal corporate income taxes, according to new Congressional Research Service estimates."

I told you this and you're STILL misstating it. You had every opportunity to do your research and get your homework right. But you decided it was far more important to BS your way through the argument.

233 posted on 10/09/2007 4:13:21 PM PDT by robertpaulsen
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To: Hostage
I am not looking at what others say, and saying I am “confused” is a bit much I think.

Like many things involving business and economics, the “model” works well, but the real world is a bit different.

The big hurdles for Fair Tax are the realities of business and more than anything else the psychology of the American Consumer. Being hit at every purchase with a very tangible sales tax, including all such, local, state and now federal, will never fly.

234 posted on 10/09/2007 4:17:04 PM PDT by ejonesie22 (Hey, weren't you banned for being an idiot in another thread...)
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To: beavus
re: # 218

Go to http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_faq_answers#3

It will answer your questions.

Schroll to the third item -- How does the prebate work? --- for the answer to your specific question in post # 218.

235 posted on 10/09/2007 4:23:08 PM PDT by Turret Gunner A20 (.... when you really start to pay attention, you automatically become a conservative.)
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To: cinives
those are post-tax prices
What's your point?
236 posted on 10/09/2007 4:42:00 PM PDT by lewislynn (What does the global warming movement and the Fairtax movement have in common? Disinformation)
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To: Turret Gunner A20
Ever hear of overstock sales? How about loss-leaders?
No. But I know what taxable income for a business is.
237 posted on 10/09/2007 4:45:11 PM PDT by lewislynn (What does the global warming movement and the Fairtax movement have in common? Disinformation)
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To: Turret Gunner A20
How about proving to me that he is lying about the excise tax.
How much is the excise tax going to be?...What is your source?
What is you source for that accusation?

You want me to prove that something isn't written? Try HR 25...(That's the legal language for The Fairtax Act in case you were wondering)...One of you should try reading it sometime....

238 posted on 10/09/2007 4:54:19 PM PDT by lewislynn (What does the global warming movement and the Fairtax movement have in common? Disinformation)
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To: longtermmemmory
it turns all businesses into UNPAID tax collectors. What USED to be a quarterly report now turns into a monthly report.

ah, most every state has a sales tax and all businesses already collect the tax UNPAID and have forever...It would be the same for the FED. sales tax. In addition, they would be relieved from making matching payroll taxes, saving not only a whopping load of money from the taxes but the bookkeeping and time involved.

With the FAIR TAX, they collect the sales tax at time of purchase, the cash register records it - they send the state theirs and the feds theirs...No money out of their pocket.

why do those who so fear the FAIR TAX either fail to see this or deliberately try to obfuscate it in what seems like a panic mode -

you say "a new entitlement bureacracy being proposed, and EASILY avoidable tax scheme for larger items, an EASILY avoidable tax scheme on smaller goods via straw sales, an onerous increase in government paperwork and intrusion in a business’s books and records, AND it turns all businesses into UNPAID tax collectors.

LOL - sounds more like the present IRS system...which you seems to think is just super - as I said before, from things you've posted, it sounds like the FAIR TAX, which illiminates the fancy loopholes that lets the very wealthy pay a smaller percentage of tax than the working stiff, is going to effect you -

239 posted on 10/09/2007 4:58:01 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ("...but you can't fool all of the people all of the time" LINCOLN)
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To: beavus

That’s a croc. The FairTax does not guarantee $30,000 to every citizen.

Where do you people get this crap?

Study before you open your piehole!

http://www.fairtax.org


240 posted on 10/09/2007 5:03:20 PM PDT by Hostage (Fred Thompson will be President.)
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