Posted on 06/15/2007 5:38:24 PM PDT by Man50D
A candidate strong in protecting us from illegals and strong on the nrst would have half the battle won.
Heh...I think our "betters" in Washington know they'd see riots in the streets if most people actually had to send the government money already in their pockets, rather than having it withheld before it ever gets to the earner.
True story: not long after I started my first job out of college, my employer gave out profit-sharing checks based on time at the company. Since I had been there less than a year, I got the minimum amount - $100. But after withholding, the actual check I deposited was about $65 and change.
As ridiculous and frustrating as I thought it was at the time, it's nothing compared to if I had actually deposited a check for $100 and then had to send the government 35% or so of that money after it was already in my account.
Wasn't the "Boston Tea Party" exactly that.
As one post I saw put it.. "no guts, no glory".
How far into a corner will we allow them to push us?
Not a single rep from PA. Disgraceful!
This year for the first time I'll have to make quarterly estimated payments as a small business owner. That means no one is withholding anything from my income and I have to write a check to the IRS every quarter for 100% of my federal tax obligation. I ran the numbers today based on a couple different salary projections to figure out just what I will owe.You're right, the Fairtax would be much easier. If your business is a service or retail business you'd only have to tally up your gross business (not personal) earnings from taxable sales and or services and send them 23% of it...every month.
Actually, as I understand it, my business wouldn't have to collect the FairTax since we sell capital equipment to companies. But if we did, I'd still agree with you 100% - adding tax to the price and paying it after it's collected seems almost utopian compared to building taxes into the price and owing taxes before one even gets the income.
You're right, that's yet another good point - small business owners can pay taxes after they've been collected, rather than having to estimate and pay taxes on money that hasn't even been earned yet.I agree about the estimated taxes but if collecting more money for taxes is that easy what's stopping you from doing that now?
Actually, as I understand it, my business wouldn't have to collect the FairTax since we sell capital equipment to companies.You're right, you wouldn't have to. But since you're business savvy (I'm not being sarcastic) and knowing your take home pay would be taxes yet to be paid when you spend it, could you lower your prices (gross income) 23% as the Fairtax suggests?
For six years the Republicans could have actually done something about the FairTax and didn’t. Now that there is no chance of it even getting past committee (why didn’t this happen when the Republicans were in charge of the committee — think about it), they sponsor the bill in record numbers! And why not, they know it’s going nowhere and by sponsoring it they get the support of the mindless FairTax drones.
The funniest one is Dennis Hastert. The guy was fricken Speaker of the House. If he really supported the FairTax, he could have gotten some movement on it. But what did y'all get from him? NOTHING!! And now that he's just an irrelevant representative from Illinois with no power, he's a big time supporter!! And all the FairTaxer love him for it!! Where was he when you needed him?
Suckers!
The general answer is that my competitors aren't doing that. The answer more specific to my business is actually that I do try to charge what the market will bear for each sale, but since the sales are to businesses they wouldn't be subject to the FairTax anyway.
You're right, you wouldn't have to. But since you're business savvy (I'm not being sarcastic) and knowing your take home pay would be taxes yet to be paid when you spend it, could you lower your prices (gross income) 23% as the Fairtax suggests?
Again, assuming my customers were paying the FairTax, I could lower prices somewhat. Probably not 23%, because not all of my costs are wages taxable to my employees (if they were, I could feasibly cut prices 23%, with a corresponding cut in wages). But the equilibrium is some combination of decreased wages (with an increase in actual take-home pay as a result of the wages being earned tax-free) and decreased prices, the sum of which will add up to about 23%.
I see what you're saying. It's the FairTax, not the MagicTax; you don't get prices at the original pretax level and 100% of pre-FairTax wages in your paycheck. The only money that is actually added to the system is that spent on compliance costs, which is maybe 10% or 20% of the entire burden (but still nothing to sneeze at). The advantage that I see is that you have a system where each person may choose when and how much tax to pay, and doesn't have to pay taxes on money not yet earned or used.
No. Why wouldn’t I owe the FairTax in the first place?
No. Why wouldn’t I owe the FairTax in the first place?I'm talking about purchases for your business.
Actually, you could probably make it even more efficient - for example, issue magnetic-strip cards (like a credit card) with whatever information identifies your business. When purchases are made for business, that card gets swiped (or the number gets entered) right after the credit card is swiped, or a check written, or whatever, and the FairTax is not collected. There's already some similar method for tax-exempt organizations to avoid paying state sales tax when buying at retail.
In any event, it's not like doing it manually is a big deal. Once we get the FairTax passed, we can worry about streamlining the details.
Similarly, I used to always pay my credit cards as late as possible to take advantage of the use of other peoples money. Now I pay them well in advance of the due date because occassionally my payment would clear after the due date and the penalties would more than any miniscule interest I had earned on "their" money. With the advent of free automated bill payment I've now started to push my payments back towards the due date as I gain faith in the payments being made on time, every time and not being liable if there is a hiccup in the transfer.
All of that said, it is good of you to take time to educate others of the financial facts related to these early payments. Each person needs to make this decision for themselves because there are other factors besides money. Peace of mind is worth more to me than money and personally I'm not organized enough to make sure I don't get hit with penalties. For me, getting organized is like turning on the thumbscrews. I haven't truely balanced my checkbook or credit card bills in years. I
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