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A 23% sales tax would kill our economy. Just the thought of paying that much would curtail my spending. It is better to have people pay 10%--a small amount compared to pay for the freedoms we have in this country--than to punish the economy with an NST.

...23% sales tax would kill our economy...

I don't think it would. Not when you factor in other things:
- elimination of the IRS
- elimination of tax accountants and tax lawyers
- elimination of payroll taxes
- elimination of distortions in business caused by the tax code
- removal of the feds from our personal finances

Also, a high visible tax like that would give people a daily reminder of the excess that is their government.

A 23% sales tax would kill our economy.

You pay more than that now by a long sight.

DO YOU PAY YOUR INCOME TAX
AT THE SUPERMARKET?
by D. Sherman Cox J.D. L.L.M. Taxation

The article considers only those factors actually paid to government out of impositions on the business in complying with the income, payroll, excise & tariff tax laws and does not account for the additional burdens pressed on the economy as a consequence to complying with the current tax code.

The total contribution of the federal tax system(including taxes in gross wage/salaries) to the price of retail consumption goods and services is 36% for federal taxes alone.

Why? Because wages and the taxes on them are paid for out of sales receipt to business,(i.e. consumption expenditure). If we add in a cost of compliance of more than $600billion/year as a very conservative estimate, the percentage that represents the burden on the family due to the Federal income payroll tax system increases to about a 47% of family consumption expenditures.

Total fed taxes as reflected through gross family income is 23.5% (taxfoundation)
Total state taxes reflected through gross family income is about 10.2% (taxfoundation)
The current net personal savings/investment rate is about 1.2%.(BEA)

Tax as % of current family retail expenditure = fed/(1-state-fed-savings) =

23.5/(1-.235-0.102-0.012) = 36.09%

Current total Federal tax revenues are about $1900billion, more than $600billion(Paine '97, Pilla '95, AGCCA 2000, Williams 2000) additional dollars are passed on in consumption prices due to the business costs of complying with the federal income/payroll tax laws.

Percent total current federal burden (taxes + compliance costs) of consumption dollars = 36*(1900+600)/1900 = 47.36% as passed through consumption prices.

Reduce the taxes on business and simplify them in any way possible ultimately means a lower price and higher standard of living for the citizen.

It is better to have people pay 10%

How do you plan on getting there from here?

Remember what Walter Williams is telling us?

Walter Williams, World Net Daily, 10-25-2000

According to the most recent U.S. Treasury Department figures, in 1997 the top 1 percent of income-earners (those with income of $250,000 and higher) paid 33 percent of all federal income taxes. The top 5 percent of income-earners ($108,000 and over) paid 52 percent, and the top 50 percent ($36,000 and over) paid 96 percent of income taxes. Guess what the bottom 50 percent of income earners paid?
If you're among those who pay little or no federal income taxes, what do you care about tax cuts? Moreover, if you think tax cuts pose a threat to government handout programs, you might be openly hostile and support Al Gore's silly "risky scheme" talk. So many Americans paying little or no federal taxes makes for a natural spending constituency. It's like me in the restaurant: What do I care about extravagance if you're footing the bill?

And the "Flat Tax" proposals that have been submitted before congress even add to that constituency of 70% of the voting public clamoring for more from government looking for the top 40% of taxpayers to foot the bill.

than to punish the economy with an NST.

NST?, that is what we already have and the Flat Tax would just institutionalise it by increasing the constituency exmempted from filing to pay the tax.

An NST is a VAT clear and simple taxing all levels of production and passing the total burden down to the ultitmate consumer in price inflation.

And the Forbes/Armey Flat tax is an income tax with VAT(an NST), requiring, the IRS for administration and enforcement, and still taxes business passing on such taxes in higher prices to consumers, lower wages to employees, and lower returns to investors/retirees.

Collection of Value Added Tax

Issue: What Is the Best Way to Collect a Value Added Tax?
A value-added tax (VAT) generally is a tax imposed and collected on the value added at every stage in the production and distribution process of a good or service. Although a VAT may be computed in any of several ways, the amount of value added generally can be thought of as the difference between the value of sales and purchases of a business. (e.g. Revenues - Costs = Taxable Business Income)
***
Subtraction-Method VAT. Under the subtraction method, value added is measured as the difference between a business's taxable sales and its purchases of taxable goods and services from other businesses. At the end of the reporting period, a rate of tax is applied to this difference in order to determine the tax liability. The subtraction method is similar to the credit-invoice method in that both methods measure value added by comparing sales to purchases that have borne the tax.
***
The subtraction method differs from the credit-invoice method principally in that the tax rate is applied to a net amount of value added (sales less purchases) rather than to gross sales with credits for tax on gross purchases. A business's tax liability under the credit-invoice method relies on the business's sales records and purchase invoices, while the tax liability under the subtraction method may rely on records that the taxpayer maintains for income tax or financial accounting purposes

None other than the father of the flat tax, Robert Hall of Stanford University (along with Alvin Rabushka), in his 1995 Ways and Means Committee testimony said, "The Hall-Rabushka flat tax is a value-added tax."

Which was pointed out again in additional hearings in April of 2000:

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/fullcomm/106cong/4-11-00/4-11kotl.htm

"Robert Hall, one of the originators of the proposal(Flat Tax), who describes his Flat Tax as, effectively, a Value Added Tax. A value added tax taxes output less investment (because firms get to deduct their investment.)"
"The Flat Tax differs from a VAT in only two respects. First, it asks workers, rather than firm managers, to mail in the check for the tax payment on that portion of output paid to them as wages. Second, it provides a subsidy to workers with low wages."

The Flat Tax; Chapter 3, by Robert Hall and Alvin Rabushka

In our system, all income is classified as either business income or wages (including salaries and retirement benefits). The system is airtight. Taxes on both types of income are equal. The wage tax has features to make the overall system progressive. Both taxes have postcard forms. The low tax rate of 19 percent is enough to match the revenue of the federal tax system as it existed in 1993, the last full year of data available as we write.

Here is the logic of our system, stripped to basics: We want to tax consumption. The public does one of two things with its income—spends it or invests it. We can measure consumption as income minus investment. A really simple tax would just have each firm pay tax on the total amount of income generated by the firm less that firm’s investment in plant and equipment. The value-added tax works just that way. But a value-added tax is unfair because it is not progressive. That’s why we break the tax in two. The firm pays tax on all the income generated at the firm except the income paid to its workers. The workers pay tax on what they earn, and the tax they pay is progressive.

To measure the total amount of income generated at a business, the best approach is to take the total receipts of the firm over the year and subtract the payments the firm has made to its workers and suppliers. This approach guarantees a comprehensive tax base. The successful value-added taxes in Europe work this way. The base for the business tax is the following:

Total revenue from sales of goods and services

less

purchases of inputs from other firms

less

wages, salaries, and pensions paid to workers

less

purchases of plant and equipment

The other piece is the wage tax. Each family pays 19 percent of its wage, salary, and pension income over a family allowance (the allowance makes the system progressive). The base for the compensation tax is total wages, salaries, and retirement benefits less the total amount of family allowances.

CONSUMPTION TAX PROPOSALS; 1996 Deloitte & Touche LLP

One concern associated with the flat tax is whether the low advertised rates will produce the same amounts of revenue as the current income tax. A June 7, 1995, Treasury Department analysis of a flat-tax plan similar to the Armey proposal, concluded that a rate of at least 22.9 percent would be needed to make the plan revenue neutral, that is, it would allow the government to raise as much revenue as is currently raised. Although the proposal is designed to raise less revenue than present law, the extent of the shortfall will concern policymakers.

The Armey bill, H.R. 2060, would replace the current corporate income tax with a tax on business activities equal to 20 percent (17 percent after 1997) of business taxable income. The tax would apply to every person engaged in a business activity, whether an individual, partnership, corporation, or otherwise. Taxable business income would be gross active income (that is, income other than investment income) reduced by an array of business deductions.

This business activity tax resembles a VAT computed by subtracting the costs of inputs from gross receipts, except that H.R. 2060 allows a deduction for cash wage expenses. Note that, under the bill, cash wages are subject to tax at the individual level at the same flat rate applicable to business profits. Thus, the combination of the business activities tax and the individual tax is roughly equivalent to a VAT. In addition, taxing wages at the individual level allows a generous personal exemption that makes the personal tax more progressive. To ensure that compensation is taxed once, tax-exempt entities that pay compensation other than as cash or retirement plan contributions would be subject to an excise tax.

The Flat Tax is a VAT even as the current income/payroll tax structure now in place is a subtraction method VAT, in that it is a levy imposed on businesses at all levels of production, it is passed on to the consumer hidden in the price of goods and services.

As long as government is able to play a shell game with hiding taxes from the Voter(i.e. individual) it can rely on the old maxim:

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
-George Bernard Shaw

and keep right on growing without bound.

A 23% sales tax would kill our economy.

Actually, it would be a boon to our economy. I believe you are of the mind that prices will increase, and that the increase will inhibit spending...

Well, prices won't change much, if at all. And did you know that right now, you pay far more than 23% in fed tax costs in every single purchase you make?