Many issues to discuss, but first, I am Hank Van Gieson, a retired Air Force pilot, aged 78, and I was shot at and missed in two wars defending your right to write any fool thing you wish. I am not a paid lobbyist, just a conservative citizen interested in the truth. Save your insults for another time and focus on the facts. First, let’s talk about enforcement.
My source is a very good and unbiased book named “Taxing Ourselves” by Joel Slemrod and Jon Bakija. Get a copy from your library and be prepared to learn.
As for your”facts”, 70% of retail sales of goods may be tied up in 3000 Corporate chains, but the service industry is a very different animal. There are millions of service providers, and it is the Services industry that causes sales tax schemes to fail. No nation has ever been able to tax all services successfully, and that is the Achilles heel of the Fairtax scheme. Furthermore, it is absolute nonsense to claim that it takes two to cheat under the Fairtax. Think about it! You may pay the sales tax, but unless you are willing to report every dime you spend and to which business, there is no dual reporting. The retail sales merchants can take whatever risk they feel is warranted depending on the rate, and you will never know the difference. It only takes one to cheat, and that one could be the retail merchant, or perhaps the Treasurer of any given State who might feel the revenue is better spent within his State without washing the sales tax revenue through the Federal government.
You wrote: “30% is the exclusive rate and 23% is the inclusive rate. The actual rate is set at 14% and then surcharge rates are added to maintain revenue neutrality.” Balderdash! I don’t know where you came up with your 14%, but it is nonsense.
As for the VAT, you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. Both are consumption taxes and a VAT and a national sales tax are identical other than the Vat is collected in small chunks at each level of production and the retail sales tax is collected all at once at the retail cash register. At the same rate, both collect the same amount of revenue, and both can be displayed on the retail sales tax receipt. The VAT has proven to have much lower evasion rates due to the “self policing” nature of the collection process. Read all about it in the book I recommended.
More to follow!
A government enterprise would be AMTRACK or USPS.`(12) TAXABLE EMPLOYER-
`(A) IN GENERAL- The term `taxable employer' includes--
`(i) any household employing domestic servants, and
`(ii) any government except for government enterprises (as defined in section 704).
`(B) EXCEPTIONS- The term `taxable employer' does not include any employer which is--
`(i) engaged in a trade or business,
`(ii) a not-for-profit organization (as defined in section 706), or
`(iii) a government enterprise (as defined in section 704).
`(C) CROSS REFERENCE- For rules relating to collection and remittance of tax on wages by taxable employers, see section 103(b)(2).
`SEC. 703. GOVERNMENT PURCHASES.
`(a) Government Purchases-
`(1) PURCHASES BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT- Purchases by the Federal Government of taxable property and services shall be subject to the tax imposed by section 101.
`(2) PURCHASE BY STATE GOVERNMENTS AND THEIR POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS- Purchases by State governments and their political subdivisions of taxable property and services shall be subject to the tax imposed by section 101.
`(b) Cross References- For purchases by government enterprises see section 704.
Ignorance is bliss.
> “Many issues to discuss, but first, I am Hank Van Gieson, a retired Air Force pilot, aged 78, and I was shot at and missed in two wars defending your right to write any fool thing you wish. I am not a paid lobbyist, just a conservative citizen interested in the truth. Save your insults for another time and focus on the facts.”
People can say whatever they want on the internet and even say they are Hank Van Gieson, a retired Air Force Pilot etc. Such statements do not mean anything nor count for anything because they may not be true and usually aren’t. You said yourself that you are/were a lobbyist here:
http://www.humblelibertarian.com/2010/03/interview-with-ken-hoagland-author-of.html
Whether what you say is true or not I am inclined to think after reading your internet activity that you are not qualified to be a lobbyist and that you are a person of self-delusion.
Your moniker and others that you use are reported all over the internet. Your arguments have been rebutted over and over again. Your ‘facts’ and positions have been debunked, shown to be false and are devoid of an educated demeanor. Yet you continue to seek out websites including LGBT websites where a discussion of the FairTax is being held and you have repeated the same diatribe again and again.
Further, you were asked politely for the names of the economists that you referred to in your previous post where you referred to them saying “at sales tax rates above 10%, illegal evasion as well as legal tax avoidance start to increase significantly”, and you have not supplied these references. Any researcher worth something would have provided links and citations. When a poster resorts to “Economists say” etc. most readers here at FR take that as shoddy cover knowing that “Economists have called nine of the last five recessions”. In other words your references and arguments are shoddy and substandard. That’s not an insult; that’s a fair critique of your research ability. Even if you were pro-FairTax I would not hire you for any reason as a researcher.
As for your representation of yourself, here’s what some others say about you:
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Permalink Reply by Edward Ray McKee, Jr. on October 6, 2010 at 1:58pm
Hank Van Gieson is a notorious liberal FairTax hater. He uses every opportunity in virtually every blog to attack the FairTax. That he would be part of an education curriculum for FairTaxNation is incomprehensible. Mr. Van Gieson’s analysis as to every provision of the FairTax bill is always slanted in favor of the current IRS system. Mr. Van Gieson has even stated in the past that he would prefer a Value Added Tax on top of our current system before he would the FairTax. I encourage everyone to do their own research. I also reprimand FairTaxNation for allowing Mr. Van Gieson’s junk to appear on its website.
Ray McKee
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Permalink Reply by Phil Tuttobene on October 25, 2010
Public disclosure:
Hank Van Gieson served as a lobbyist. He served ten years as a lobbyist for Boeing Aerospace and now still “consults” as a retired lobbyist. IMO, Meaning he is still a lobbyist.
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and further you have the aliases of Linda Little, Van Little all of which reveal your agenda and repeat the same near verbatim flawed assertions based on false premises.
http://economics501.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/fairtax-si-progressive/
There is the most revealing evidence about your true affiliations here:
http://redneckdemocrat.com/fair-tax-the-real-truth/comment-page-1/
where you are an ardent poster on a website that is democrat, that is anti-Sarah Palin, that is anti-GOP. I suggest you go back there for that appears to be where you belong because it is easily seen by gleening from all your internet postings that nothing is going to turn you to the FairTax. This is evident from having spewed all over the internet your laundry lists of false premises, disingenuous questions and unsupported or deceptive assertions. As one poster said of you that “you “
Other postings under your moniker reveal you to be a “Flat-Taxer” which means you are for the Income tax.
These are not insults hurled at you, whoever you really are, and you are free to post just about any view you wish on this website forum but it is fair to let others see where come from and what others say about your views.
So I think most will agree that your views here on this website do not require any response as they have been smattered all over the internet and others have already responded to your repetitious diatribe.
I will ask others who post here and that seek learning and understanding of the FairTax to ignore your deceptions. I will refer back to this post if they have any desire to find out more about you and the responses to your laundry list of misinformation.