How would they be eliminated? I have given numerous examples in this thread of how sales tax is circumvented now and there is a lot incentive at 4.5% than there will be at 20 or 30%. Enforcement will only work if:
1. All businesses report gross sales honestly, or
2. All consumers report all transactions, or
3. All items are tracked from import or manufacture.
I keep hearing that #1 will be enforced, but not how. See my posts #637 and #642. The flea market is a crude example of more sophisticated black markets that will arise from a high sales tax. I believe that it is inevitable that the government will mix in enforcement mechanisms 2 or 3 above, which although still unworkable, will end purchase privacy.
I keep hearing that #1 will be enforced, but not how.
Number 1. Though not all business owners will be honest for there will be a small percentage that don't. Harsh penalties will be a deterrence. Innocent until proven guilty would be the law and rule followed. No more guilty-until-proven-innocent as it is now with the IRS. The many states do a competent, non-intrusive and non-abusive job of ensuring that sales tax is collected fairly. Bring the accuser before the business being accused and the accuser has the burden of proof to prove that the business didn't give the government the sales tax. Many honest citizens are willing to help a police detective catch a criminal, honest business owners don't like cheaters and would likely be willing to help a government tax detective do his job when the business owner was certain the business was cheating. The honest business owner stands with the government as the accuser thus he too is exposed/transparent and wouldn't wrongfully accuse. Honest business owners don't like dishonest business owners that wrongfully accuse others of cheating on paying the sales tax to gain an unfair/illegal competitive advantage (use the government to attack an honest competitor)... A business would be killing it's own business if it accused an honest business for cheating. It would probably kill its business quicker for bearing false witness against an honest competitor than if it cheated on taxes itself. Nobody likes a cheater but even more reprehensible is a person that knowingly and wrongfully accuses an honest person of cheating.
I believe that it is inevitable that the government will mix in enforcement mechanisms 2 or 3 above, which although still unworkable, will end purchase privacy.
That defeats the purpose of replacing an already abusive intrusive IRS. Besides, it doesn't currently happen in any of the states that now have sales tax. You have only your opinion that an additional 23% tax despite a roughly same percentage lower product/service retail price will cause many business owners to become dishonest or create a viable black market and that the government would advocate returning to an abusive and intrusive measure which the people will have already spoken against in the first place by replacing the current tax system with a NRST. The pendulum is swinging in favor of the individual and individual life-and-property rights. The politicians and bureaucrats are being increasingly exposed for the frauds they are.... And that momentum has a snowballing effect. Honesty outlives the lie. It always has and always will.
Replacing the graduated income tax with a NRST is not an end all be all. It's but one of five key factors for collapsing a corrupt government while allowing a fair and honest government to rise in its place.
Replacing the graduated income tax with a NRST would set off a chain reaction of benefits.
The reader can get more information at Americans for Fair Tax on the fairtax.org Web site.