Posted on 12/26/2007 6:39:45 AM PST by shrinkermd
What emerged from this research is that a national retail sales tax is a preferred method of taxation among most Americans surveyed. Another is that the tax would have significant benefits for the nation's economy.
Why? Because it eliminates income taxes and payroll taxes (for Social Security and Medicare), which are costly to collect and end up as "embedded" in the price of everything we buy. Along with getting rid of the Internal Revenue Service and the complexities of the income tax code, the FairTax would eliminate the distorting effect that income and payroll taxes have on the economy.
Research on the price of consumer goods reveals that up to 20% of all prices today represent hidden income taxes and payroll taxes. Once these taxes are repealed and replaced with the FairTax, it is likely that market pressure would force retail prices to fall.
Eliminating embedded taxes will also do something else -- it will remove significant price disadvantages suffered by American producers competing with tax-free imports. Eliminating corporate income taxes and capital gains taxes, which the FairTax would do, would likely make the American economy the most desirable place in the world to do business.
Another benefit of the FairTax is that, unlike other sales taxes, it would not hit the poorest Americans the hardest. The FairTax proposal calls for sending every American a "prebate" check to offset the cost of the national sales taxes paid by those living in poverty. This feature would effectively exempt those living below the poverty line from paying taxes to the federal government, and provide all taxpayers with a reimbursement of a portion of taxes paid.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Surely, the states have not with Minnesota having an income tax as well as a sales toax.
The history of the federal government "reforming" the tax code is one of deceit and false promises. Remember 1986? Giving up the tax shelters including interest deductions on taxable income was supposed to make the 28% maximum rate acceptable. Well it did. But then even Reagan started nibbling at the rates and they are now____________ ? Fill in the blank and remember the RATS are claiming to be taking over after the next election. They have also promised to raise taxes. What better way then a national sales tax.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The first income tax was 6% from $3-500,000. It was very simple. Then Congress started making it ‘fairer’.
Even if the income tax was eliminated, Congress would ‘tweak’ the sales tax by adjusting what the rate was for different items, and how the so-called ‘pre-bate’ was calculated. It wouldn’t be long before folks would dread filling out their pre-bate form, while computers would be needed to figure out the tax when you checked out. And forget about tax-free on the Internet!
The problem isn’t the income tax, it is the size and power of government!
ping
Dateline: 1775 - "All arguments aside, does anyone believe that King George and Parliament would cease their unfair taxation without representation?"
We would all benefit from paying just one tax but you'd be asking politicians to stop handing out goodies for their re-election.
And, as the Founding Fathers demonstrated, sometimes you have to acknowledge that it's time to stop "asking" politicians for anything, and to start reminding them that they work for the people, and removing them when they don't get the message.
If (and that's a big IF) we ever remember or relearn that lesson, things will change...
Sounds like the very essence of socialism to me, when the government is sending a check to everyone.
So - are you advocating an armed rebellion against the government?
This is part of a larger fight, the fight between freedom and Socialism/Communism. The income tax is a powerful tool of the left, imposed by a President and Congress who did more to further Socialism in this country than any before it,
The income tax bestows far too much power on a central government, is inefficient, and unfair. To stand by it and oppose the NRST is to stand by the left and oppose freedom.
It is much more than just a tax issue.
That’s crazy talk... At least it has a chance, which our current tax system doesn’t.
“The problem isn’t the income tax, it is the size and power of government!”
Exactly.
That’s the only thing that needs to be fixed is the super-sized gov’t needs to be downsized.
Getting to keep all the money you earn equals Socialism? Got a better way to insure that no one pays tax on the essentials of life?
The problem with slippery slopes is that their curve starts out very nearly flat and stays that way for quite a while. But with time the slope not only steepens but the slipperiness of the slope increases. At some point, and it’s impossible to tell exactly when, the combination of these increases makes it impossible to keep the curve from becoming a straight line, straight down.
I am convinced we are approaching that point, but I’ve thought so several times in the past and been proved wrong each time. This year could prove different, however. With the cost of energy at or near all-time highs and climbing, with so many Americans having used all the equity in their homes to get credit cards that are getting near maxed-out now, and the adjustable rate mortgages going up, not to mention a Congress that threatens to make government even bigger, something’s gotta give.
Hopefully I’m wrong and a recession around the world will lessen demand for energy and put a damper of some of the other pressures the economy is facing. Otherwise this will be a Christmas to remember, remember as the last of its kind for several years.
Free or fair...right or wrong, the point for me is to have the federal, state and local taxing entities out of control of my life.
I want to choose to pay the tax. I want to be free from intimidation from the IRS and similar enforcement bodies, I would like my income and my home to be free from levy or lean.
Americans just can’t seem to figure it out. Lets pick apart a plan that would help free us from oppressive levies and enforcement tactics by government.
You make that sound like such a bad thing. What if the Americans in the 1770’s had felt that way?
I hope you get the jest in my question, but I hasten to add that SOMETHING is going to have to give sooner or later!
You obviously missed my point. The income tax was flat when it first passed, and very easy to file. THEN Congress began to adjust it!
The ‘fair tax’ would not stay intact for an entire year, even if passed. Congress would immediately begin massaging it. My guess is they would adjust the pre-bate first, to make it ‘fairer’. Then they would go to work on what rate was charged for different items.
It is naive to think that, if the ‘fair tax’ was passed, it would remain forever in its original form.
The problem is the size and power of government, not how government collects the money it needs.
"WE the PEOPLE own the steering wheel" needs to be a bumper sticker
Amen! I had not thought about it in exactly those terms, but you have hit the nail squarely on the head.
Sadly, situations like these don’t historically tend to get solved in a painless manner. Everyone involved just goes along ignoring the danger signals, preferring instead to hide their heads in the sand, or worse, until the bottom falls out. Then all those steps that were felt to be way too extreme in the early stages of the problem seem like child’s play compared to what it takes at that point.
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