[Principled]

The tax only triggers at point of sale, rather than getting taxed at every step along the way from production → distribution → sale. Now, instead of dealing with dozens of arcane embedded taxes, you deal with 1 single visible tax.

The SALES tax only triggers at the point of sale. But the flat income tax on business profits is passed along - that's why the flat income tax is defined as a subtraction method vat.

Now, a vat alone is ok - but not with personal income tax and a national retail sales tax. Cain is a smart man and he will change this.

[Utmost Certainty]

Correct. I’m only arguing against the woefully misinformed who insist on claiming that the sales tax is a VAT.

And yes, my understanding is that phase 2 of 999 ultimately does away w/ both the personal and corporate income taxes—described here: http://www.hermancain.com/999plan