These talking points are designed for a 15-minute speech. We suggest the use of specific examples on how people will be affected by the FairTax to better illustrate its value.
Imagine a tax system that:
- allows you to keep 100% of your paycheck, pension, and Social Security payments.
- frees up the time wasted on filling out cumbersome I.R.S. forms.
- makes taxation of income unconstitutional by repealing the 16th Amendment.
- exempts all taxpayers from federal taxation, up to the poverty level, through a monthly rebate.
- ensures that all Americans pay their fair share of taxes.
- dramatically lowers tax rates for low-income and middle-income Americans.
- Dramatically reduces the cost of goods and services by 20% to 30%.
- allows families to save more for home ownership, education, and retirement.
- protects and ensures the funding of Social Security and Medicare.
- leaves unchanged the amount of money raised by the federal government.
- Makes American products more competitive overseas.
How? This tax system is the most researched, and we think you'll agree, the best tax reform plan -- it's called the FairTaxSM.
The Problem is the Current Income Tax Code
A. The current tax code is unfair, costly, and unreasonably confusing.
- Because the tax code is so complex and easy to evade, many of us pay more in taxes per year than we should! The I.R.S. estimates that over 40% of Americans no longer comply with the current tax code! This makes the rest of us pay over 30% more in taxes.
- Over half of American taxpayers seek professional help simply to prepare their returns. And according to Money Magazine, chances are 99% that you will pay someone to file an incorrect return!
- Compliance with the tax code is not only very difficult and complicated, but unreasonably expensive as well. It is estimated that it costs taxpayers $225 billion for tax filing, tax record keeping, and tax reduction advice. That's the equivalent of about $850 for every man, woman and child in America! We have taxation without comprehension!
B. The current income tax code unfairly hampers personal financial opportunity.
- When citizens are taxed on their earnings and on what they produce, hard work is discouraged.
- The current income tax code inhibits economic growth, capital formation, and, most importantly, job creation.
- The current income tax code punishes personal savings and investments; and sometimes these are unfairly subjected to double and even triple taxation.
C. The current income tax code tax is grossly unfair to all wage-earning Americans.
- Payroll taxes are taken out of our paychecks, and we all have no control or choice over when we pay or how much we pay in taxes. They are deducted from our paychecks before we can save or spend it.
- The payroll tax is the most regressive and unfair feature of our current tax system. The current payroll tax applies only to wages, and hurts the most important tool by which anyone who is not born to wealth has to get ahead.
D. The current tax system allows for massive loopholes encouraging politicians and lobbyists to pick winners and losers.
- The tax code is filled with loopholes that are manipulated by high-priced lobbyists for their clients, and by other special interests.
- The complexity of the current income tax code is an open invitation to those with the means to manipulate the tax code.
- There are more lobbyists registered in Washington for taxes than for any other issue.
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The Solution is the FairTax
The FairTax is fair to all Americans and simple to understand. Under the FairTax, all wage earners will keep 100% of their paychecks, prices will drop dramatically, and Social Security and Medicare funding will be more secure.
The FairTax frees up financial opportunity by restoring choice in spending, encouraging savings and investment, and dramatically reducing tax evasion. With the elimination of virtually all compliance costs, $225 billion will be restored to the economy. The FairTax offers an unprecedented opportunity for lower and middle-income wage earners to get ahead, to save to buy a house, to educate themselves and their children, and to save for a dignified retirement. And under the FairTax, all Americans, regardless of their income level, will be better off with the FairTax.
- Everyone will be subject to the same consumption tax rate with no exceptions and no exclusions, and those least able to share in the cost of government will carry no federal tax burden at all.
- The FairTax increases individual purchasing power, making it easier to get ahead financially by eliminating:
- the individual income tax, including capital gains taxes
- the payroll income tax
- the inheritance tax and the gift tax
- the self-employment tax
- the corporate income tax
The solution we propose involves two actions:
- Passage of legislation that institutes a single-rate, FairTax on all final sales of new goods and services. This tax would become the chief source of revenue for the United States government, replacing all federal income and payroll taxes, yet generating the same revenue. The legislation provides for a tax rebate equal to the consumption tax paid on essential goods and services. The rebate ensures that no American will pay tax on the purchase of necessities.
- A constitutional amendment that would repeal the 16th Amendment and make a federal income tax unconstitutional.
We Can Win!
Bringing the FairTax to a vote only requires 31 members of Congress! If eleven members of the Senate Finance Committee and twenty members of the Ways and Means Committee support the FairTax, they can bring the FairTax Bill out of their respective committees and onto the floor of both the House and the Senate. At that point, it would be the leadership's decision to go to a full vote by the entire membership. It can be done, and we are well on our way there.
Polling shows that the American people understand and favor fundamental reform such as a federal consumption tax. The national groundswell of support is growing in leaps and bounds. Thousands of Americans are expressing their support for the FairTax through phone calls, e-mails, letters, and faxes. FairTax Volunteers are growing by the hundreds. The possibility of bringing about peaceful change is one of the great strengths of the American system. It is obvious that the FairTax is a reasonable solution whose time has come.
Let me repeat the tremendous benefits of the FairTax plan. The FairTax plan:
- Allows you to keep 100% of your paycheck, pension, and Social Security payments.
- Frees up the time wasted on filling out cumbersom I.R.S. forms.
- Makes taxation of income unconstitutional by repealing the 16th Amendment.
- Exempts all taxpayers from federal taxation, up to the poverty level, through a monthly rebate.
- Ensures that all Americans pay their fair share of taxes.
Dramatically lowers tax rates for low-income and middle-income Americans. - Dramatically reduces the cost of goods and services by 20% to 30%.
- Allows families to save more for home ownership, education, and retirement.
- Protects and ensures the funding of Social Security and Medicare.
- Leaves unchanged the amount of money raised by the federal government.
- Makes American products more competitive overseas.
As Americans come to understand that the FairTax will close tax loopholes and make everyone pay their fair share of taxes, it will be passed into law. Fully 85% of Americans informed about the FairTax are likely to support the tax change that makes the closing of these loopholes a reality. And the FairTax offers not only this, but many other benefits:
- You never pay another hidden tax again. The FairTax is printed on every receipt for every purchase.
- All taxpayers are treated fairly. No loopholes for anyone.
Individuals have more control and choice. People can make choices about how much to pay in taxes, by deciding when to buy and what to buy. - Virtually all economic models project a much healthier economy under the FairTax. Real investment will grow by an estimated 76.4 percent. Exports will jump by an estimated 26.4 percent. Interest rates will drop between 20 and 30 percent.
- Small businesses never have to track tax withholdings or deductions.
- Tax evasion will dramatically decrease. No more income-reporting means the end of "hiding" income from tax authorities.
- Compliance costs will be slashed. Compliance costs will drop by over 90%, from $225 billion.
Concluding Remarks
It is time for the FairTax. For nearly 100 years, we have carried the burden of an oppressive and counterproductive tax system which has punished work and achievement, savings, and investment. The current tax code has been grossly manipulated to reward elite political interests, and it hurts the average American. The current tax code has hidden the true cost of government from the very taxpayers who pay for it.
Americans are not obligated to accept a tax system that penalizes the average working American while giving special consideration to those who buy favors and perks in Washington, D.C. To be competitive in the next century, and to renew the American dream, we must change the way we fund our national government. It is time for the FairTax.
The FairTax will allow Americans to keep 100% of their paychecks, dramatically reduce prices, protect and ensure funding of Social Security and Medicare, empower low-income taxpayers, and put choice and control back into the hands of all Americans. All the crucial elements are in place: a public, eager and ready for a tax system that is fair, and a Congress seriously willing to consider genuine tax reform. It only takes thirty-one Congressmen, and we will win.
www.fairtaxvolunteer.org
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