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Commentary: Doing away with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) (Replacing With The Fair Tax)
helium.com ^ | Ken Hoagland

Posted on 02/01/2008 12:06:25 PM PST by Man50D

There has been much misunderstanding-deliberately promoted by income tax system defenders recently-about the effects of the FairTax on different income segments of the taxpaying public. Let's clear the air a bit.

The greatest benefits of tax reductions under the FairTax, according to respected economists, accrue to low income taxpayers (an average 14% reduction) then to the middle class taxpayers(an average 7% reduction) and then even to the wealthy (an average 5% reduction).

How can this be and still raise enough revenues to replace all taxes now collected under the income tax system? It's because the taxpayers base is dramatically broadened under a consumption tax by bringing in illegal immigrants, as consumers, and the $1.5 trillion annual underground economy. In addition, the very wealthy pay the full 23% rate on spending, which is an increase over the typical 15% capital gains tax now paid on dividends and stock gains when redeemed (Warren Buffet's recent complaint). In a nutshell, the more you spend under the FairTax, the more taxes you pay. Remember, too, that all the gimmicks that those with tax lobbyists and tax lawyers are able to exploit in the current 67,500 pages of income tax regulations also disappear (along with the role of tax lobbyists as there are no exemptions, loopholes or deductions).

The President's Advisory Panel on Tax Reform declared that taxes would go up on the middle class under a consumption tax when they ignored the definitions in the actual pending FairTax legislation and created their own flawed consumption tax. They quietly loaded it with exemptions they felt more "realistic", ignored the distributional effects of eliminating highly regressive FICA taxes (you know, the ones that represent the highest tax payments by low and moderate income taxpayers) and refused to examine the $22 million of FairTax research. They then declared a consumption tax (which many writers have wrongly assumed was the FairTax) as requiring a higher rate and punitive to the middle class.

The FairTax monthly prebate actually wipes out all federal taxes on the poor and a diminishing amount of taxes are reimbursed the further one is from the poverty line.

There is great resistance to the FairTax within the circles of those who profit from the complexities of the income tax code. Last year 53% of all lobby expenditures in Washington, DC were paid to tax lobbyists. It's big business that includes not only lobbyists and tax related think tanks and tax reforms groups (entirely devoted to tweaking the income tax code) but academicians who have built careers on understanding the arcane details of the code.

Add to that the center of resistance to a simple, transparent system without gimmicks-the Congressional tax writing committees themselves. In truth, Congressional Members from both parties are addicted to using the tax code to reward friends and contributors, punish opponents and inept attempts to manipulate citizen behavior through the code. In other words, our tax writing process is driven by all the wrong reasons.

This is the single biggest reason that our tax code is so complex that it costs taxpayers $265 billion a year just to complete tax returns. It is so complex that the IRS can't answer taxpayer questions right more than six of ten times. It is so complex, the IRS comes up $350 billion short of owed taxes every year (raising the average taxpayer bill by about $2,000 annually).

On the merits, the FairTax takes politics out of the tax code and the tax code out of business decisions. It is the politics that are tough because passage requires overcoming powerful institutional players. To this end, Mike Huckabee and a host of other candidates have joined 72 Congressional co-sponsors and a growing army of citizens who believe that the public can still drive public policy ( a novel idea first suggested by the Founding Fathers). Otherwise, we are stuck with a system that makes debt more favorable than wealth, puts the "Made in America" label at a severe competitive disadvantage and punishes labor and investment. It's a system driven by politics, power and profit instead of economics or fairness. It's a lucrative gig for those in Washington and a destructive torture for everyone else.

Instead of borrowing money from the Chinese to pay out rebates to American taxpayers (as welcome as they will be) maybe we should think about what happens to the American economy when we make the USA the most desirable "tax haven" in the world. We have lost at least $12 trillion in American capital to offshore locations in recent years. Economists who have studied the FairTax agree that this wealth and a lot more in foreign investment will rush to our shores once the FairTax is enacted.

As FairTaxers say, "Dare to Be Fair". The FairTax won't be perfect and the transition will require adjustments but compared to the badly broken income tax system that so bedevils taxpayers and damages our economy, it's well worth it.

The FairTax research-as well as a recent article on how the FairTax helps the middle class by brilliant Boston University economics chair, Larry Kotlikoff, can be found at FairTax.org


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: fairtax
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To: xcamel
Let's see now.

You work and someone else takes whatever portion of the fruits of your labor they currently want before you see a dime!

Yep! That's slavery!

41 posted on 02/01/2008 2:23:01 PM PST by Bigun (IRS sucks @getridof it.com)
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To: Bigun; All
Let's see, you work, eat, get shelter, raise a family, drive a car, and lose 30% to the taxman every time you open your wallet...

Now that's real slavery!!

42 posted on 02/01/2008 2:34:50 PM PST by xcamel (Two-hand-voting now in play - One on lever, other holding nose.)
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To: longtermmemmory

Read tagline.


43 posted on 02/01/2008 2:39:31 PM PST by unixfox (The 13th Amendment Abolished Slavery, The 16th Amendment Reinstated It !)
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To: Man50D
I found a mascot for the Fair(y) Tax

It is magic. Taxes, the IRS, fat, baldness, and bad breath all magically disappear.

44 posted on 02/01/2008 2:39:43 PM PST by Raycpa
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To: Man50D
"the taxpayers base is dramatically broadened under a consumption tax by bringing in illegal immigrants, as consumers, and the $1.5 trillion annual underground economy."

The only way the Fair Tax will bring in more money from this group is if this group collects and forwards the Fair Tax on their goods and services.

For example, the drug dealer will have to add 30% to his drug prices and forward that money to the government. Ditto the prostitute.

Now, they don't file a 1040 today. I doubt they'll register a collect the Fair Tax tomorrow.

45 posted on 02/01/2008 2:57:21 PM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: Raycpa
That's what they try to sell you..

This

...is what you get...

46 posted on 02/01/2008 3:00:23 PM PST by xcamel (Two-hand-voting now in play - One on lever, other holding nose.)
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To: Man50D

Thank you for your reply. If the 16th Amendment is repealed than Congress cannot pass legislation re-imposing an income tax. The reason why the 16th was passed is so that the government could get around the Due Process clause of the Constitution. That is the reason why the Civil War era income tax was ruled unconstitutional.


47 posted on 02/01/2008 3:04:11 PM PST by ops33 (Retired USAF Senior Master Sergeant)
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To: wastedyears

Thank you for your reply. I know that the legislation supporting the Fair Tax called for repealing the 16th Amendment but an amendment repealing the 16th Amendment must still be approved by the 3/4 of the state legislatures.


48 posted on 02/01/2008 3:06:41 PM PST by ops33 (Retired USAF Senior Master Sergeant)
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To: Republicus2001
Has Wesley Snipes been sentenced yet? p Jury Acquits Wesley Snipes of Tax Fraud

Friday, February 1, 2008

OCALA, Fla. - Action star Wesley Snipes was found not guilty of federal tax-fraud and conspiracy charges Friday, but was convicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file a tax return.

Snipes and two co-defendants, a delicensed accountant and a tax protest leader, were indicted in 2006. Snipes was also indicted on six counts of willful failure to file a tax return from 1999-2004, a period in which he signed two contracts for more than $10 million on sequels in the "Blade" trilogy. He was acquitted on three of those and convicted on the others. He could be sentenced to three years in prison after originally facing a possible 16 years.

Co-defendants Eddie Ray Kahn, the founder of a tax protest group, and Douglas P. Rosile, the accountant, were convicted by the same jury of tax fraud and conspiracy. Snipes sat expressionless until all of his verdicts were read. Then, defense attorney Robert Bernhoft put his hand on the actor's leg and Snipes nodded in relief.

http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp?cat=TopStories&referrer=welcome&id=20080201/47a2a750_3ca6_15526200802011894705064

49 posted on 02/01/2008 3:08:43 PM PST by Turret Gunner A20
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Comment #50 Removed by Moderator

To: NCBraveheart

Does it require a constitutional amendment to repleal a constitutional amendment? If so, then it would require approval by 3/4 of the state legislatures.


51 posted on 02/01/2008 3:15:33 PM PST by ops33 (Retired USAF Senior Master Sergeant)
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To: xcamel
They really shouldn’t let people with screws lose to post on FR.

Then what in God's Name are you and you littlle troll buddies doing smelling up the forum?p> PS: it's spelled "loose", not lose.

You all go on back over to DU and Kos -- your stinking nastiness and lies will fit in perfectly over there.

52 posted on 02/01/2008 3:17:44 PM PST by Turret Gunner A20
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To: ops33; Man50D
I know that the legislation supporting the Fair Tax called for repealing the 16th Amendment but an amendment repealing the 16th Amendment must still be approved by the 3/4 of the state legislatures.
Apparently you don't know. There is nothing in the passage of the Fairtax bill that compels any other actions not included in the bill and that includes repealing the 16th...

No matter what distorted wording Man50d uses nor what all the books you've read says, it simply ain't in the bill.

53 posted on 02/01/2008 3:17:51 PM PST by lewislynn (What does the global warming movement and the Fairtax movemractent have in common? Disinformation)
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To: xcamel
The chains of irrational rage seem to be the hardest to break..

How the hell would you know? You have never shown any evidence of having ever tried to break yours.

54 posted on 02/01/2008 3:22:54 PM PST by Turret Gunner A20
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To: NCBraveheart
Repeal of the 16th Amendment is part of HR25 the Fair Tax Bill
No it isn't. I wonder why the Fairtax supporters feed you this kind of misinformation? They also let you make fools of yourselves by not correcting you, allowing you to keep repeating it...

I wonder why they think they need to do that?...It must come from the Scientology roots.

55 posted on 02/01/2008 3:30:04 PM PST by lewislynn (What does the global warming movement and the Fairtax movemractent have in common? Disinformation)
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To: lewislynn

Wathc that “lovers” crap, you disgusting pimp.


56 posted on 02/01/2008 3:31:36 PM PST by Turret Gunner A20
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To: lewislynn

It comes from the “psychic friends network” in the storefront right next door to the AFFT offices in TX...


57 posted on 02/01/2008 3:33:06 PM PST by xcamel (Two-hand-voting now in play - One on lever, other holding nose.)
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To: xcamel
They really shouldn’t let people with screws lose to post on FR

Isn't this the kind of thing you were bitching and moaning about in post #24? Nine posts later you do exactly the same thing. Typical.

58 posted on 02/01/2008 3:34:08 PM PST by groanup (Don't let the bastards get you down.)
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Comment #59 Removed by Moderator

To: Raycpa

A CPA who posts publicly for the continuation of the income tax. Who’d a thunk it?


60 posted on 02/01/2008 3:36:50 PM PST by groanup (Don't let the bastards get you down.)
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