Posted on 05/27/2009 5:38:44 AM PDT by GreaterSwiss
With budget deficits soaring and President Obama pushing a trillion-dollar-plus expansion of health coverage, some Washington policymakers are taking a fresh look at a money-making idea long considered politically taboo: a national sales tax.
Common around the world, including in Europe, such a tax -- called a value-added tax, or VAT -- has not been seriously considered in the United States. But advocates say few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity.
At a White House conference earlier this year on the government's budget problems, a roomful of tax experts pleaded with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to consider a VAT. A recent flurry of books and papers on the subject is attracting genuine, if furtive, interest in Congress. And last month, after wrestling with the White House over the massive deficits projected under Obama's policies, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee declared that a VAT should be part of the debate.
"There is a growing awareness of the need for fundamental tax reform," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said in an interview. "I think a VAT and a high-end income tax have got to be on the table."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
That's the way it use to be
You wrote: “Yea, cuz there’s nothing like a hefty 30% tax on all goods and services to spur economic growth.”
First, it’s not 30%, it’s 23%. Currently, businesses pass along their income taxes to consumers, so those taxes are imbedded in everything we buy. With the FairTax there would be no income taxes withheld from anyone’s salary, and no Socialist Security or Medicare taxes withheld from anyone’s salary. There would be no income tax returns for anyone or any company. The 23% would not be added to the retail price at the store, it would be imbedded in the price. This tax would be collected at the state government level and passed along to the federal government. There would be no sales taxes on any used goods. People could control the amount of taxes they pay based on their spending, or consumption. The Fair Tax is simple, unlike the current federal income tax system, which is so complex that Americans spend at least $250 billion a year just to comply with it -— hiring accountants, lawyers, etc.
The prebate is calculated to compensate for those who fall below the poverty line, so they would not be burdened with the retail sales tax up to a certain level of spending. The Fair Tax takes away the ability of Congress to use the federal income tax system as a way to control our lives. It kills lobbyists and loopholes. It is transparent, so any increase in the retail tax rate would be immediately obvious to all consumers. The Fair Tax would encourage savings and investment, versus spending, thereby providing the capital needed for economic growth. Foreigners visiting the U.S. would pay the tax, and so would the millions of illegal aliens and other crooks who evade paying federal income taxes. Capital would flow to the U.S. as a result of their being no income taxes here. It would give us a worldwide competitive advantage.
Go to www.fairtax.org for more detailed information, and to sign up and support it. There are bills pending in both the House and the Senate, so write to your congressmorons and tell them to support the Fair Tax, or you won’t vote for them in the next election.
Yeah, I think we will easily top China's population due to the diligent work of Acorn.
You wrote: “Fair-taxers should get it into their heads that this is never going to happen. As easy as it sounds it is ridiculous to consider that the government will be ‘prebating’ a check to everybody in the country in order to allow for a VAT or point of sale tax. It is much more likely that a flatter and fairer tax with limited deductions would be easier and much more efficient too not only sell to the American people but to enact.
A good example of a fairer flatter tax would be close to what the Republicans are pushing for now, a voluntary two tier tax. 10% on all income up to $100,000 and a 25% tax on all income above $100,000. This coupled with generous personal deductions of around $12,500 per family member linked to inflating would allow a family of 4 who gross $100K pay 10% taxes on $50,000 after personal deductions.
This plus a massive overhaul; of government workforce, including the privatization, an outright elimination of large swaths of the federal government would solve many of the problems”
Go to www.fairtax.org for more detailed information, and to sign up and support it. There are bills pending in both the House and the Senate, so write to your congressmorons and tell them to support the Fair Tax, or you won’t vote for them in the next election.
Guess he lied(imagine that) about not raising taxes on the low and middle class.
The VAT isn’t a new idea. I remember one of my college professors talking about it back in the ‘70’s.
This professor was advocate of VAT but he wanted it to replace all the other taxes, including the income tax. He also mentioned that Europe already had the VAT but the problem with Europe was that they added the VAT on top of all their other taxes.
I read where something like 50% of the American people don’t pay Federal income taxes. I don’t know if that stat is true but everyone will pay the VAT in the way of higher prices.
Of course. How could it not?
Hate to say it but, this is what the American people voted for with Obama and the Dems. Even if this doesn’t become reality, we’ll see some other way to raise taxes. What a disaster.
You do understand that ACORN got a billion
____________
I believe it was more like FOUR BILLION.
Correctomundo, and that seems to be the thing most Americans have the most trouble understanding, especially those who oppose the Fair Tax. If every layer of hidden taxation was known and factored into the total cost of goods and services, taxes would easily be the largest part of the cost for almost every item we buy and service we use.
And not only corporate taxes are hidden, although those taxes are a significant part of the final cost, virtually all goods and services are taxed at multiple levels in the chain from raw material to finished product. For just one small example, fuel for the machines that mine or harvest raw materials, for the trucks or trains that carry the raw material from the farm, mine, or forest to the factory, and the finished product to the distributor, on to the wholesaler, on to the retailer, is taxed by the state and the feds. And that doesn't even begin to take into account the multiple layers of other taxes such as taxes on the real property, wages, equipment, etc, that are levied at every stage of production and delivery to the consumer, who pays all those taxes indirectly.
It would take a team of expert accountants years to determine exactly how much we pay in taxes that most of us assume are just part of the normal cost of the product or service.
THE FAIR TAX WILL NEVER BE ADOPTED! IT DOESN'T MATTER IF IT IS THE BEST SYSTEM OR THE WORST SYSTEM!
PUT YOUR EFFORTS INTO FAIRER AND FLATTER TAX SYSTEMS. PEOPLE CAN UNDERSTAND THEM AND THEY WILL ACCEPT THEM EASIER.
The Fair Tax is to fair and too logical. They will never go for it.
The liberal version of the Fair Tax.
Actually, this is the real Fair Tax: implement a national sales tax, promise to repeal the federal income tax (& 16th amendment), then announce that both taxes are needed because the government is bankrupt and “investments” in socialism are needed.
It is 30%. It is stated that a product would increase in price from $1 to $1.30 they say this is a 23% tax because $130 is 23% higher than $1. The math is already disingenuous because we would all agree that .30 is 30% of $1. IE: a thirty % tax.
This would be a boon to the black market. Who wouldn't try to avoid this new abusively high tax. Not to mention the shenanigans in order to get more of a pre-bate. Talk about welfare queens, i can see 30-50% prebate fraud. An entirely new bureaucracy will have to be made at the Federal level in order to compel companies, as well as individual states, to comply with this new system.
The fair tax seen]ms to be a good plan until you start to implement it.
We already have the Federal Income Tax system and IRS in place. They could be easily converted to allow a new type of filing. If the new type of filing is successful, great, if not we have little invested in it.
:-D
thx for the info and source
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