[Tell It Right]

From Dementon: Look at the prebate as just a flat refund of all taxes paid up to the poverty level that everyone is eligible to receive. Everyone pays the same tax at the register and everyone received the same annual refund amount.

A "prebate" that "everyone is eligible to receive" sounds an awful lot like UBI to me. Is it a flat tax or not?

It's kind of like gay marriage. At first, the small-government person in me supported any adults calling themselves married as long as they don't force the rest of us to call it that. But the Dims didn't stop with that. They've now taken it to supporting pedo and such.

Don't do the same with the good idea of a fair tax. Don't define it in a way that can be implemented only with UBI (calling it "prebate" is lipstick on a pig). Don't make people pay different sales tax rates if they spend more and have the audacity to say there are no tax brackets.

The "flat" in flat tax means everybody pays the same rate ... period. That's what makes it beautiful. Adding varying rates and "prebates" makes it everything but flat and too much like the crap we already have in place.

[bankwalker]

How will they know who gets prebates without monitoring everyone's income? I thought that fair tax was supposed to eliminate that. Flat tax is no better because income must be monitored.

I think that any tax based on revealing income should be illegal.

[Dementon]

“A “prebate” that “everyone is eligible to receive” sounds an awful lot like UBI to me.”

A refund of taxes paid is no more UBI than the personal exemptions in the current tax system.

“Don’t make people pay different sales tax rates if they spend more and have the audacity to say there are no tax brackets.”

I really think you’re making way too much of this.

Look at it this way: No one pays taxes on spending up to the poverty level so no one is taxed on the necessities of life. After that everyone is taxed at the same rate. That way there are no “effective rates” and no “tax brackets” to get you upset.