Hey Terry, Thanks for the reply. Your assertion that FairTax has no chance of passing is a meaningless statement you have no conditional statement. At this writing, something like 54 federal legislators have already co-sponsored the FairTax bill HR 25 / S 25 (check http://tinyurl.com/7lssy ). This is no small feat, when you consider that Forbes's "Flat Tax" didn't even get 10% that many. If people become educated about the FairTax, its features and benefits (see below), and agree that it makes sense, grassroots will grow, activism will grow, and change will occur.
Credibility is apparent, because every retail receipt would show the FairTax. That's a BIG part of the plan. So, taxpayers KNOW what their government - and its spending - is costing them. So, every Piggly Wiggly supermarket receipt will show that 23% of the bill is FairTax. NO attempt to HIDE anything. Clearly, the 23% is a comparative basis to income tax rate quotations. Legitimate residents of the US - entitled to receive the monthly family allowance advance tax reimbursement check will NEVER pay the full 23% consumption rate (or 29.9%, if you show it as a true sales tax, same difference). FairTax rates for those making (per this video http://snipurl.com/ImagineFTVideo ) in 2004 dollars: $25,000 = -0-% tax $35,000 = 7.9% tax $50,000 = 13.0% tax $100,000 = 18.3% tax $500,000 = 22.1% tax FairTax is the only tax reform plan that will effectively UNTAX the poor and low-income. (Only visitors and illegals will pay the entire 23% portion of prices. FairTax also ensures that drug dealers, and others who procure illicit income, will become tax payers). Let's take a look at how much the even the low-paid wage-earner is paying NOW: 1st) FICA 7.65% - hits all wages from $0 - $90,000 (rich avoid this when they receive money in dividends) 2nd) "Hidden Tax" in higher prices 22% (avg among all goods/services) - cost of giving Politicians "straw men" to tax, so they can tell constituents, "Oh, we'll tax those rich, evil businesses, instead of you." As Alan Greenspan noted before a congressional committee (Google it): "it is people, and *not* businesses, who pay taxes." (paraphrased) 3rd) Min. income tax rate 10% Add them together, and you realize that almost **** 40% of every dollar ****! is gobbled up by the IRS. It costs Americans $250-500 billion every year to comply with the current federal income tax code ($350 bil for actual compliance, and $150 for time spent in planning tax avoidance - primarily available only to the well-off). This waste in paperwork and tax planning is equal to $850-1,700 each year for every man, woman and child in the U.S. The FairTax will provide a more stable tax base and raise the same amount of revenue. The cost to comply with FairTax? Only about $12 billion annually. (That's for the whole system - heck, right now, it costs $10 billion just to run the IRS!) or only $50 for every man, woman and child. Not only is the current 45,000 page tax code wasteful of our money and time, it is too complicated to understand. An average of 22% of the cost of every good and service produced in the U.S. is the hidden cost of federal business income and payroll taxes. This hidden tax puts Americans at a 22% disadvantage when competing here or abroad with foreign produced goods and services. A Harvard study shows, after the sales tax replaces the current tax code, prices will decline by this ~22% and result in companies and jobs returning to the U.S. (read: "tax haven" for biz; off-shore returns home; foreign companies set up shop here; btw this is the only way that prices will fall under FairTax: competition) You, and Bruce Bartlett, are playing fast and loose with tax rates. A rebuttal to Bartlett should be read here: http://snipurl.com/FTBartlettRebut No one said that FairTax will solve tax evasion, there will simply be less opportunity for tax evasion to occur because fully 90% of returns (1040's) will be GONE. Only businesses will file the FairTaxes collected and buyer and vendor will have to conspire to defraud - less likely with "big box" national retailers. Enforcement will shift to local (states). IRS is gone - with its huge wasteful computer systems (search gao.gov for their reports to congress). As far as the 16th Amendment is concerned, the FairTax bill disengages operational authority. Thus rendering it as un-usable. The Amendment, itself, will need to be repealed among the states. The main thing is to communicate the FairTax, and its goals, features, benefits, and to get behind the effort. I concur with the the following delineation of benefits from the FILES of [MIFairTax_Districts] Yahoo group: By taxing consumption, rather than income: FOR INDIVIDUALS: * No more tax on income - make as much as you wish. * You receive your full paycheck - no more deductions. * You pay the tax when you buy "at retail" - not "used." * No more double taxation (e.g. like on current Capital Gains). * Reduction of "pre-FairTaxed" retail prices by 20%-30%. * Adding back 29.9% FairTax maintains current price levels. * FairTax would constitute 23% portion of new prices. * Every household receives a monthly check, or "pre-bate." * Pre-bate equals payback for taxes on spending to poverty level. * FairTax's pre-bate ensures progressivity, poverty protection. * Finally, citizens are knowledgeable of what their tax IS. * Elimination of "parasitic" Income Tax industry. * NO MORE IRS. NO MORE FILING OF TAX RETURNS by individuals. * Those possessing illicit forms of income will ALSO pay the FairTax. * Households have more disposable income to purchase goods. * Savings is bolstered with reduction of interest rates. FOR BUSINESSES: * Corporate income and payroll taxes revoked under FairTax. * Business compensated for collecting tax at "cash register." * No more tax-related lawyers, lobbyists on company payrolls. * No more embedded (hidden) income/payroll taxes in prices. * Reduced costs. Competition - not tax policy - drives prices. * Off-shore "tax haven" headquarters can now return to U.S. * No more "favors" from politicians at expense of taxpayers. * Resources go to R&D and study of competition - not taxes. * Marketplace distortions eliminated for fair competition. * US exports increase their share of foreign markets. FOR THE COUNTRY: * 7% - 13% economic growth projected in the first year of the FairTax. * Jobs return to the U.S. * Foreign corporations "set up shop" in the U.S. * Tax system trends are corrected to "enlarge the pie." * Larger economic "pie," means thinner tax rate "slices." * Initial 23% portion of price is pressured downward as "pie" increases. * No more "closed door" tax deals by politicians and business. * FairTax sets new global standard. Other countries will follow. I invite you to join the effort ( http://tinyurl.com/7lssy then register at FairTax.org ) Regards, Ian ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Check out the new improvements in Yahoo! Groups email. http://us.click.yahoo.com/6pRQfA/fOaOAA/yQLSAA/KlSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! 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