2007
The U.S. Internal revenue code
– unfairness defined
By:
John Linder | June 15, 2007
| Editorial
In “The Republic,” Plato wrote,
“When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more
and the unjust less on the same amount of income.”
Even as we try to address this concern,
I agree with Ronald Reagan who stated that “Most [tax revisions]
didn’t improve the system, they made it more like Washington
itself: complicated, unfair, cluttered with gobbledygook and loopholes
designed for those with the power and influence to hire high-priced
legal and tax advisers.”
This tax advantage phenomenon occurred in the past, it happens
today, and it takes place across the globe. Just this past summer,
the rock group U2, led by Bono, who has been outspoken about the
need for his government in Ireland to contribute more tax dollars
to Africa, showed how strong the desire to avoid paying taxes
can be. When Ireland eliminated a tax break for royalties, the
band moved their music publishing division to the Netherlands
to avoid taxes. One member of U2 stated, “Of course, we’re
trying to be tax-efficient. Who doesn’t want to be tax-efficient?”
"The
FairTax will create a system that has no exemptions, no exclusions
and no special advantages for one American over another."
COMPLETE
STORY
Tax Code Complexity Is Growing Burden
By: Pete Sepp
|
Budget & Tax News
| The
Heartland Institute
| July
1, 2007
Americans who struggled to finish their tax returns in April needed
more than a little aspirin and a lot of luck to cope with new
filing burdens and increased costs, according to the nonpartisan
National Taxpayers Union's (NTU) annual study of tax law complexity
trends.
Taxpayers using any of the 1040 tax form series spent an average
of 24.2 hours and $207 completing their returns this year, up
from 23.3 hours and $179 three years ago.
"The federal income tax system has become so complex that
no one outside or even inside the Internal Revenue Service understands
it," said NTU senior counselor and study author David Keating.
"Last year taxpayers were forced to give up half a billion
hours more of their time than they did in the year 2000, all because
of new IRS paperwork burdens."
The NTU study, released April 16, is the ninth comprehensive examination
of tax code complexity the group has conducted since 1999. It
provides long-term data on increasingly daunting obstacles in
the task of complying with IRS demands.
Burden Grows.... Among the findings of the study: COMPLETE
STORY
Promote
Sustainability by Rethinking the Income Tax?
By:
Steve Puma, San Francisco | June 7, 2007
| Editorial
As
a first-semester student in Presidio School of Management's MBA
in Sustainable Management program, I've been learning quite a
bit about what sustainability really means, and what it will take
for business and our economy to become sustainable. One topic
that gets discussed quite a bit is how to encourage people and
business to use natural resources more efficiently, while encouraging
them to use more of the one resource that isn't in short supply:
human labor. Inevitably, the discussion turns to tax policy, specifically,
how the US income tax system makes labor more expensive while
discouraging savings and encouraging consumption. One professor
suggested that a possible solution is to stop taxing labor and
begin to tax things that we want less of, like carbon emissions.
This really caught my attention, because I have been a long-time
advocate of the FairTax legislation, which would replace the Federal
income tax and payroll taxes, and many other federal taxes with
a consumption tax. It occurred to me that enacting the FairTax
would, in addition to a myriad of other benefits, solve one piece
of the puzzle, namely untaxing labor and making labor more attractive
in the marketplace.COMPLETE
STORY
Unfair tax policies drive away business
By
ED CONNOR
| COMMUNITY
VOICE - Daytona Beach, FL |
June 13, 2007
In spite of significant efforts by the
FairTax organization to avoid misleading hyperbole, The News-Journal
published a June editorial attacking the principles of the FairTax,
a bill presently before Congress that has more than 60 bispartisan
co-sponsors including area representatives Tom Feeney, John Mica
, Dave Weldon and Ander Crenshaw. This bill advocates the abolition
of the federal income tax at both personal and corporate levels,
the alternative minimum tax, death taxes and, the most regressive
tax of all, the payroll tax which hits the working poor the hardest.
COMPLETE
STORY
Below is an opinion column printed in
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution with rebuttal from FairTax SE
Regional Director, Phil Hinson to follow
Fervent faith in Fair Tax defies reason
By Jay Bookman | Monday, April
23, 2007
|
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I wouldn't
want to accuse Georgia's Fair Tax movement of being a cult, but
it does have a disturbing number of cult-like attributes. Among
other things, its adherents display an almost religious fervor
for their cause, to the point that they become blind to the obvious
irrationality of claims that are made on its behalf.
The prime advocate of the Fair Tax in Congress, U.S. Rep. John
Linder (R-Ga.), claims the tax will do away with "all personal
income taxes, corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, self-employment
taxes, capital gains taxes and gift and estate taxes." Instead,
those taxes will be replaced with a retail sales tax of 30 percent
on all services and new goods.
Among other benefits, Linder claims that adopting
the Fair Tax will drive down retail prices by 20 percent to 30
percent. That price drop would almost completely offset the Fair
Tax's 30 percent sales tax, meaning that in effect, we could run
the federal government for free.
But wait! If you act now, Linder will also throw in a 10.5 percent
increase in the nation's gross domestic product the very first
year the Fair Tax is in place. And as a special bonus, interest
rates would also fall by 20 to 30 percent.
Linder and other Fair Tax advocates, including talk radio host
Neal Boortz, make two other promises as well. First, they say,
the Fair Tax will be revenue-neutral, generating just as much
money as the current system.
Second, they promise that the Fair Tax will not shift the tax
burden onto low-income households, as sales taxes usually do.
To their credit, they make an honest effort to achieve that goal,
using a monthly check to compensate low-income households for
the higher sales tax they would pay.
But let's review. Under the Fair Tax, low-income Americans won't
pay taxes; corporations won't pay any taxes either. Yet the Fair
Tax is guaranteed to generate the same amount of revenue as today's
system. Basic arithmetic requires that somebody's taxes increase.
Who will that somebody be?
For example, would it be a typical middle-class two-income Georgia
family with two kids, a mortgage and college tuition payments?
As it happens, I have access to the tax returns of just such a
family.
At www.fairtax.org, the main Web site of the Fair Tax movement,
I plugged the Bookman family financial data into the FairTax calculator.
The model reported that the Fair Tax would save me $7,500.
Suddenly, the Fair Tax didn't seem such a bad idea.
Still, the mystery remained: If the middle class pays less, and
corporations and poor people don't pay anything at all, who pays
more? The rich? That didn't seem likely given Republican enthusiasm
for the Fair Tax, but again I turned to the FairTax calculator
for help.
As it happens, I also had access to the 2006 tax return of a rather
wealthy couple who reported an adjusted gross income of $765,801
and paid $203,021 in federal taxes. What would this couple, a
certain George and Laura Bush, pay under the Fair Tax?
Plugging their data into the calculator, I learned that the Fair
Tax woud cut their federal tax burden by $74,596.
I then began to punch invented numbers into the model, determined
to find somebody, even a theoretical somebody, who would pay more.
A family with $1.5 million in income, with a $4.5 million mortgage?
Nope. Under the Fair Tax, they would save $436,624.
Finally, I hit paydirt. It turns out that a married couple with
two children who rented their home and made $40,000 would, under
the Fair Tax, pay $860 a year more in taxes than they do today.
Somehow, I doubt that will be enough to make the concept revenue-neutral.
In 2005, a panel appointed by President Bush to study proposed
changes in the federal tax system reached the same conclusion,
though its process was more sophisticated. It found that eliminating
just the federal income tax — leaving payroll taxes, estate
taxes and gift taxes in place — would require a retail sales
tax of at least 34 percent. As it noted, "no state or country
has ever levied a retail sales tax at a tax rate that even approaches
the 34 percent required to replace the federal income tax system."
The panel also reported that replacing the income tax with a 34
percent sales tax would reduce taxes on just two groups —
households making more than $200,000, and those making less than
$30,000. For everyone else, the tax burden would increase.
Unfortunately, such data don't seem to penetrate the cult. A core
of Georgia Republican Party activists has completely embraced
the Fair Tax, and GOP elected officials have done so as well.
Every Georgia Republican in Congress is a co-sponsor of Fair Tax
legislation, as are both U.S. senators. The fever is spreading
to the state Legislature, where House Speaker Glenn Richardson
is touting his radical tax-reform measure as a state version of
the Fair Tax.
Anybody have the number of a cult deprogrammer?
Rebuttal: Proposal Could Unite Country
Ken
Hoagland,
AFFT Spokesperson
Average people almost universally loathe
the income tax system that gives foreign manufacturers a tax advantage
over the “Made in America” label, makes debt more
favorable than wealth, and – against all reason –
costs taxpayers $265 billion a year in hours and money just to
obey the law. That these same average citizens are inspired to
organize and rally for an alternative that is simple, transparent,
and fair makes Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Jay Bookman
very uncomfortable.
And so he begins his cranky, contrarian quest to prove to the
masses just how wrong they are. “How,” he asks, “can
everyone be better off under the FairTax if everyone pays less?”
First, Mr. Bookman, some will pay more depending on how much they
spend – this is a tax on consumption, after all. Secondly,
he misses the larger point. The FairTax is not a tax cut but a
replacement of the most repressive and inefficient system of collection
ever devised.
The idea is not to tax income but consumption, over which we have
the greatest control. Taxing consumption instead of income is
a concept that has been endorsed by economists ranging from Milton
Friedman to Alan Greenspan. Economic science has settled the question
that savings will increase and interest rates will fall. Many
taxpayers at different income levels will also pay at much lower
rates because consumption is a far broader base for taxation than
earnings and therefore generally requires less of each. It is
such a simple and fundamental concept, it is difficult to understand
how Mr. Bookman honestly missed this bedrock truth about the FairTax.
Under the FairTax, ten to twenty million illegal immigrants, who
today do not file income taxes, pay federal taxes as consumers.
The underground economy, which now escapes income taxes and is
estimated at $1.3 billion per year, will also be paying taxes
under the FairTax. And all those wealthy clients of tax lobbyists
and favored constituents who won shelters, breaks, and outright
gifts on their incomes from the House Ways and Means and Senate
Finance Committees will also be paying, as consumers, the same
rate as every other American taxpayer. These are all new revenues
into the system and are central facts suspiciously missing from
Mr. Bookman's flawed analysis, as well as the point that the FairTax
eliminates the unwieldy, punitive, and inefficient income tax
system that costs so much time and money to obey.
Mr. Bookman heralds the “sophisticated” analysis by
the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform last
year that rejected the FairTax. They were, in fact, so “sophisticated”
that they ignored $20 million of respected research provided to
them and, instead, created their own flawed and exemption-riddled
consumption tax which they then predictably found sadly wanting.
Could the fact that the two top former senators leading this "sophisticated"
exercise now work in firms lucratively lobbying the income tax
code have anything to do with this analysis? Unfortunately, Mr.
Bookman's cynical eyes overlooked this obvious conflict of interest.
Finally, Mr. Bookman’s critique comes down to his calculation
of what happens to a family of four earning $40,000 a year who
rent. Unfortunately, he made math errors in his own best-case
calculation against the FairTax. This family, in fact, will see
an $862 decrease in federal taxes, dropping from 12 percent of
income paid to the government to 10 percent – not to mention
the money saved on aspirin trying to deal with income tax forms.
The passions of FairTaxers that cause Mr. Bookman so much disdain
are not only well-founded but a refreshing contrast to the usual
bleak outlook on public policy issues amongst the public. Such
enthusiasm is also necessary to overcome the entrenched self-interest
of Congress in preserving the income tax system. Mr. Bookman would
be well advised to rethink his cynicism and perhaps, in so doing,
find a worthwhile cause in the FairTax himself.
Rebuttal From the FairTax Cult
Philip L. Hinson, FairTax SE Regional
Director
Mr. Bookman starts his anti-FairTax column off by saying that
he wouldn’t want to accuse Georgia’s FairTax movement
of being a cult, and then spends the remainder of the column bolstering
his case that that is indeed what this movement is all about.
The difference in his perspective and that of those of us who
support the FairTax is vividly illustrated by his painstaking
efforts to calculate who the winners and losers would be. Congress
has become masterful at pitting groups of constituents against
each other under this horribly dysfunctional system which serves
their needs well, but not that of the American public. The simple
fact is that some people will pay more under the FairTax, while
some will pay less. Those outcomes will be entirely due to personal
choices made by millions of individual consumers. We do know,
however, that
(1) consumption is a far more stable revenue base than taxable
income,
(2) that the economy will do substantially better under FairTax
than under a continuation of the current system, and
(3) several hundred billion dollars in wasted compliance costs
and tens of thousands of wasted man-hours will be eliminated.
Those are benefits which all Americans will enjoy and which transcend
futile efforts to compare the individual tax outcomes of a conversion
from a coercive to a voluntary system of taxation.
The AJC has published numerous articles and columns on the wide
range of economic challenges which this country faces, including
(but not limited to)
(1) the federal budget deficit,
(2) the trade deficit
(3) the inadequate individual savings rate
(4) the crisis in Social Security and Medicare
(5) the ongoing escalation in health care costs
(6) the AMT
(7) the continued upward spiral in complexity and higher compliance
costs of the current system
The FairTax would, at the very least, favorably impact (if not
totally eliminate) each and every one of these problems. Not once
in any of my readings of the AJC’s coverage of these issues
is tax reform mentioned as a means of addressing them. Indeed,
the AJC almost never mentions solutions: they merely point out
that we have a problem. In fairness, it should also be pointed
out that the media in general is just as guilty of ignoring solutions
as is the AJC.
These problems should be of concern to all Americans even if we
were in a static economic environment. That is certainly not the
case. Globalization is one of the biggest social, political and
economic transformations in world history. The fact that few Americans
appreciate that fact does not make it any less true. The 21st
century will become known as the era of globalization; those who
have studied this trend are virtually unanimous in that view.
Clearly, this country needs to reevaluate a number of our institutions
in light of a level of global competition which we have never
before experienced. At the top of this list should be our tax
system, which is dysfunctional on so many levels.
Pour me another glass of Kool-Aid, please.
Confessions
of a former flat taxer: FairTax is better
By DENIS CALABRESE |
SPECIAL
TO THE DesMoines Register
|
April
24, 2007
Link
to web story with blogs
As presidential candidates crisscross Iowa in coming months, one
of the few things they will all have in common is an unwillingness
to defend our disgraceful federal income-tax system. It penalizes
workers, savers, the poor, the elderly, American farmers and manufacturers,
small businesses, entrepreneurs - just about everyone except tax
lobbyists and their well-heeled clients.
But will presidential hopefuls embrace a real alternative? Two
primary substitutes have been put forth: The FairTax Plan and
the flat tax. The FairTax would replace all federal income and
payroll-based taxes with a national retail sales tax of 23 percent.
A monthly rebate paid to all citizens in advance would, in essence,
cancel out taxes on spending up to the poverty level.
Both the FairTax and flat tax would reduce marginal tax rates
and the destructive tax bias against earnings, savings, and investment.
Both end double and triple taxation of savings and investment.
Both systems are better than our current broken mess, but the
FairTax is hands down better economically and politically than
the flat tax. Fundamental tax reform is not going to be accomplished
twice in our lifetimes, so we should choose wisely.
As a former chief of staff to the congressman who was the flat
tax's most vocal supporter, I was a strong flat-tax proponent
until the FairTax was developed. The flat tax is a vast improvement,
but I want the best possible system. And that's the FairTax.
The flat tax strives for transparency but retains the corporate
income tax and payroll taxes, which embed invisible federal taxes
in everything we buy. It strives to encourage work, but retains
a direct tax on labor. The FairTax abolishes the income tax, payroll
tax, corporate income tax, gift and estate taxes and all federal
taxes based on income. The FairTax broadens the taxpayer base
by capturing the underground economy, illegal immigrants and those
who have bought their way out of the tax code. The flat tax does
not.
The FairTax eliminates the intrusive, inefficient IRS; the flat
tax retains it. The FairTax abolishes individual income-tax forms;
the flat tax does not. The FairTax untaxes education; the flat
tax does not. The FairTax imposes no tax on small businesses or
farms, but the flat tax may tax small businesses and farms even
if they are losing money.
International competitiveness is another key area of difference.
Our tax system actually subsidizes foreign products by exempting
them from taxes, but it penalizes American farmers, manufacturers
and other exporting businesses by imposing taxes on our exports.
The flat tax makes this even worse. The FairTax stops this senseless,
self-inflicted economic damage.
Unlike most tax proposals, the FairTax does not pit one income
or political group against another because it offers advantages
across the economic and political spectrums. It abolishes all
federal taxes on the poor, raises real wages, promotes the "Made
in America" label and American jobs and untaxes pensions
and Social Security. It taxes accumulated wealth when spent and
is highly pro-growth because it untaxes earnings, savings and
productivity; repeals corporate income taxes and estate taxes;
and promotes investment and capital formation. It reduces marginal
tax rates for most Americans.
The flat tax is not as progressive, not as pro-growth and not
as transparent. The flat tax retains the same vulnerability to
politics that will let lobbyists and politicians again create
the very same complex, loophole-filled, unfair system we have
today.
More co-sponsors endorsed the FairTax in the first two weeks of
the 110th Congress than endorsed the flat tax in the past five
congressional sessions combined. The FairTax has hundreds of thousands
of supporters across all party lines. On the merits, the FairTax
is truly best for America in the 21st century and beyond.
DENIS CALABRESE, chief strategist for FairTax.org., is a public
policy and communications professional and the former chief of
staff to Congressman Dick Armey.
Group
promotes FairTax in Georgia
By
S. ANNE THOMPSON
|
The
Georgia Libertarian Newspaper
Visitors
to the Georgians for the FairTax Web site are greeted with the
message: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the
only thing that ever has.”
To the many individual volunteers who make up Georgians for the
FairTax, these are more than just words. The members of this all-volunteer
organization share a sincere belief that with enough effort, they
can get the FairTax enacted, and thus protect America’s
economic future. The FairTax is a national retail sales tax that,
if enacted, would replace all federal income and payroll taxes.
According to Georgians for the FairTax, the FairTax is a fair
and intelligent solution “to the frustration and inequity
of our current tax system.”
COMPLETE
STORY
2006
Herman Cain serves up 'fair tax' concept
Rally draws crowd of almost 300
By HARRIS BLACKWOOD
The Gainesville Times
Thursday, June 15, 2006
 |
Herman Cain was part salesman and part evangelist as he spoke
Wednesday in support of a national sales tax.
Cain, who finished second in the 2004 Georgia GOP race for the
U.S. Senate, was the featured speaker at a "fair tax"
rally held at Longstreet Cafe in Gainesville.
"Fair tax" is the term supporters use to describe a
proposed national 23 percent tax on goods and services that would
replace the current income tax system.
"We're now a movement," Cain said of growing national
support of the concept.
The fair tax has become popular fodder for conservative talk show
hosts and their message appears to resonate with many. A crowd
of some 200 packed the popular cafeteria-style eatery. complete
story
FairTax
gets rallying efforts
By Amber Roessner, News Staff Writer
The Barrow County News
 |
| Attending
the meeting to encourage support were Angela Bean, Georgia's Grassroots Volunteer Coordinator, and Phil Hinson, SE Region Director. |
James L. Hannah Jr., was just one of thousands who gathered at
the FairTax Rally held at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth on May
24.
For Hannah, the rally was about raising awareness for a cause
that will benefit all Americans.
In Winder on June 1, a small rally was put together by local businessman
Jim Watson coming off the success of the May 24 rally which further
sparked the FairTax fireworks which those who want to make April
15 just another day.
The local rally was low key compared to Gwinnett's but will likely
be the first of several in the local community. complete
story
FairTax still kicking
06/04/2006
Dave Williams, staff writer
Gwinnett Daily Post
Many political observers were ready to bury U.S. Rep. John Linder’s
FairTax bill last fall when President Bush’s tax reform
commission gave the back of its hand to the proposed national
sales tax.
The panel chose to recommend tweaking the current income tax system
rather than such a dramatic overhaul of the way the federal government
collects the revenue it needs to operate.
But the FairTax won’t go away. During a raucous public rally
in Gwinnett County last month in support of the legislation, Linder,
R-Duluth, announced that he is being offered an opportunity to
present the bill to the president and House Republican leaders.
He will meet this week with the House GOP leadership, then head
to the White House on a date yet to be set — accompanied
by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. — to outline his
bill to Bush.
So much for the demise of the FairTax. Complete
Story
Crowd
much smaller, but still boisterous, at FairTax rally
06/02/2006
By Rubina Madan, Staff Writer
Gwinnett Daily Post
WINDER - A week after more than 4,500 people gathered in Gwinnett
for a FairTax rally, a significantly smaller rally was held Thursday
night in Barrow County.
About 40 supporters came together to voice their views on tax
reform and listen to U.S. Rep. John Linder promote his bill, which
would get rid of income and other taxes, replacing them with a
23 percent sales tax.
Linder told supporters that it was important for grass-roots efforts
across the country to support and push the legislation. He said
he was encouraged by the response at the rally last Wednesday
at the Gwinnett Convention Center, which caused major traffic
jams and turned away at least 2,000 people. Complete
Story
To good to be true?
“Point and Counterpoint” in The Dahlonega
Nugget
Damon Whitlow
FairTax Volunteer
District Director, 9th Congressional District
So was a free nation of immigrants…..
Face it… Our country was founded on ideas that seemed extraordinary
at the time they were first mentioned. This is part of what makes
us Americans. It is also one of the reasons why I am so proud
of who I am. Anything is possible here!!!
The Fair Tax is a bill that has been introduced into Congress
that establishes a national retail sales tax that is embedded
into the price of new goods and services. Oh, by the way….
It also eliminates the most hated government agency of them all…..THE
IRS!!!
The grassroots effort to support this bill has been incredible.
The United States has seen some of its greatest changes in government
come from grassroots. The reason is because when people want change
they demand it. Our Constitution was ratified using a grassroots
campaign to build support.
I don’t want to create a euphoric scenario around this bill
and try and demonstrate how it will make everything perfect for
everyone. The one thing this bill does not do is address a wide
spectrum of problems. One volunteer told me that it’s not
the results we are targeting it’s the process. The process
of how we pay for and control our government is what we need to
revolutionize. The results will be considerably better once we
get a grip on a tax system that has spiraled out of control.
So….now that it’s April and we are ready to visit
our local tax preparer or stand in line at the post office at
midnight to file our tax return, think to yourself…..should
I be spending all this time worried about filing my taxes on time
to pay for a government that keeps getting bigger and bigger.
What If I make a mistake on my return? How much will my penalties
and interest be? Will I get audited because I decided to itemize
this year? This is absurd! We are Americans! Not slaves to the
IRS. It took many years to get the tax code we have now. Why are
putting up with this? The time is now to stop and make change.
This is a non-partisan effort to take back control of our government.
They work for us and they need to take notice! I was watching
the news a month or so ago and Intel announced that they were
opening a plant in Israel. The company spokesman said they had
many reasons for opening the plant there instead of in the U.S.
One of the biggest reasons was taxes. Think of the jobs lost to
Israel because of the tax burden we place on companies in the
U.S. It is true that companies open factories in other countries
to lower their labor costs. Under the Fair Tax these companies
will have no tax burden at all. The U.S. would become the largest
tax haven in the world. There is no matching when it comes to
payroll. Companies will not be responsible for tax collection
anymore. They can move back to the U.S. and operate virtually
tax free in a healthy economy. Wages will become very competitive
because of the growth. This means better products and services
in the market place. Not just American companies would come here.
Research has shown that foreign companies would build facilities
here so they could stay competitive in the U.S. marketplace. The
result is that a company that has left the U.S. because of payroll
costs will now have no federal tax component in their labor and
an increase in wage competitiveness.
Now, I have to admit that some people have been mislead to think
that once the Fair Tax passes that prices will immediately drop
the next day. This most certainly would not happen. The market
has to respond in its own time. Some of the most brilliant economic
minds in our country say it will depend on the individual industry
as to how long it may take. There will be no law stipulating that
companies have to immediately reflect the lower cost of doing
business in their prices. This is a free market and companies
can charge any price they want for a product they sell. BUT…..competition
will prevail in this market place. It only takes one company to
lower prices…They would most certainly start to grab market
share and this will force the other companies to respond by lowering
their prices. This is how our economy has always worked.
To be forthright one of the biggest killers of tax legislation
in our Congress has been “taxing the poor.” In the
Preamble of the U.S. Constitution the founding fathers mentioned,
“promote the general welfare.” The meaning has been
hotly debated since it was ratified. Does it mean that we must
use tax payer money to provide for the general welfare of the
impoverished? I think it does to a certain extent. The Constitution
does not say we have to but I think most of us agree that in order
to promote the general welfare we must do our part to help each
other. The Fair Tax does not address how the Department of Health
and Human Services establishes the poverty level. That is another
legislative battle. It simply uses the levels published every
year to determine the prebate amount for each family size. The
prebate is an incredible way to keep loopholes from being created
in the Fair Tax and at the same time allowing the tax burden to
lie on the consumer. You can decide on your own what level of
consumer you want to be. The Fair Tax lets anyone in this country
decide what tax rate they want to pay at.
The economic growth that this bill creates will overwhelmingly
give us more options on how we decide the poverty level, size
of government, and the control the government has over us. The
founding fathers wanted us to have this form of taxation. You
can read about it in the federalist papers. I can tell you with
certainty that this bill needs to be discussed more among citizens
of this country. Once this begins to happen on a larger scale
then we will all begin to see that we all have the highest common
ground to stand on. We are all Americans who want change in our
government.
Take back control by supporting H.R. 25 The Fair Tax.
Yes, it does sound too good to be true
How fair of an idea is the Fair Tax?
Stephen Fairbanks
Columnist
The Dahlonega Nugget
I must admit to being very intrigued by the notion of replacing
our current system of income taxes. After all, I don't know anyone
who likes writing checks every April or seeing some of their paycheck
missing on payday.
However, after doing some research on the Fair Tax in newspapers
and online, I remain skeptical about some of the claims made by
its supporters.
On the one hand, the people I have talked with are dedicated to
spreading the word in a grassroots, non-partisan manner.
On the other hand, some of the claims they have made I find difficult
to swallow.
For example, advocates for the Fair Tax claim that if we switch
to a consumption based tax, corporate income taxes will disappear,
thus making America the "world's largest tax haven."
They go on to predict that companies currently operating overseas
will return in droves to American soil.
The problem I have with that is the assumption that those businesses
are leaving solely for tax reasons. As I understand it, the main
reasons companies manufacture elsewhere is due to the low labor
costs.
Nothing about the Fair Tax promises that labor will be any cheaper
in our country. If we insist on low, low prices from places like
WalMart, those companies will continue to pay lower wages to Mexican,
Taiwanese, and Chinese workers, rather than Americans.
Another assertion repeated often by Fair Tax proponents is that
retail prices will automatically drop if the bill is passed, because
the embedded taxes which are currently in the price structure,
like payroll and corporate income taxes, will no longer need to
be paid.
Perhaps I am too cynical, but I have never known anything other
than competition or the introduction of new technology that has
caused prices to drop.
Does anyone actually think the Exxon-Mobils of the world will
simply lower their prices? Or do you think they will turn those
numbers into higher profit margins for their investors?
My final point of contention about the proposed system of taxation
known as the Fair Tax has to do with how it will impact those
living at or near the poverty level.
These individuals and families currently pay little or no taxes.
Under the Fair Tax system being proposed, they would receive prebates
each month for the amount of tax that would need to be paid on
a month's necessities.
Those prebates would be figured according to federal guidelines,
which set a notoriously low threshold for what is considered 'poverty.'
When I attended the local informational meeting to discuss this
issue, I was struck by a comment made by an audience member.
It was something along the line of "Where in the constitution
does it say we need to feed and educate the poor?" I found
that statement hateful. I have never heard anyone I know who works
with the poor insist that their obligation to do so was constitutional.
I have heard them say they felt morally and ethically obligated.
I have also heard them insist that the Christian faith calls on
those with means to help those without.
But if advocates of this bill alienate the good people who have
dedicated their lives to helping others, I can't see it surviving
any kind of national debate.
That having been said, I believe there can be common ground on
this issue. For example, it would go along way towards buying
credibility with advocates for the poor if the prebates were given
based on higher numbers than currently designate poverty, perhaps
125% or 150% of the current value.
If the economic growth that Fair Tax advocates believe would accompany
passage of their bill actually happens, than we could more than
afford to bump up our payments to the poor. Such a move would
also establish a reserve of good will in terms of poor people
having a stake in a system which currently gives them little or
no chance of pulling themselves out of their hole.
In summary, I still like the idea of the Fair Tax. However, I
think the current bill needs at the very least a tweaking, if
not a complete overhaul, to bring opponents on board.
Embedded taxes change FairTax analysis
By William Donald Tabor Jr, co-state director for FairTax.org
in Virginia
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Recent letters have expressed concern that the poor or middle
class might be harmed by adoption of the FairTax (www.FairTax.org)
based on a deep misunderstanding of both the FairTax and the current
system. We cannot assess the effects of the FairTax without comparing
it to the reality of our current income and payroll tax system.
One cannot buy a loaf of bread without paying the income taxes
of the baker. The price of that loaf of bread contains the cost
of the flour, and the income of the baker, but it also contains
the taxes the baker pays. After all, the baker does not have a
money tree from which to pluck dollars to pay his taxes, he must
get those funds from his customers, like any other business. Complete
story
The Rising Cost of Complying with the
Federal Income Tax
by Wendy P. Warcholik, Ph.D., J. Scott Moody and Scott A. Hodge
Tax Foundation/Special Report
In 2005, taxpayers will pay roughly $1.2 trillion in federal income
taxes. But America’s tax burden is more than just the amount
of tax paid. It also includes the cost of complying with federal
taxes, including tax planning, paperwork and other hassles caused
by tax complexity.
In the last century the cost of tax compliance has grown tremendously.
This is due partly to the inherent difficulty of taxing income,
but also because of growing non-economic demands lawmakers place
on the tax code. As Congress debates the tax reform recommendations
of the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform,
Members should address this growing compliance burden, and work
to reduce it through tax simplification and reform.
In 2005 individuals, businesses and nonprofits will spend an estimated
6 billion hours complying with the federal income tax code, with
an estimated compliance cost of over $265.1 billion. This amounts
to imposing a 22-cent tax compliance surcharge for every dollar
the income tax system collects. Projections show that by 2015
the compliance cost will grow to $482.7 billion. Complete
story
GOP Contest Prompts Yawns Outside Beltway
By Jim VandeHei and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, January 20, 2006
In interviews, more than a dozen Republican lawmakers who are
home for a long January break said constituents are talking a
great deal about high gas prices and even a best-selling
book about killing the Internal Revenue Service, but
not much about the intrigue gripping Capitol Hill. Even many of
those voters who are closely following the leadership contest
or the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal reportedly tend to deride
all lawmakers as money-grubbing operators, and express little
faith that Congress can be cleaned up by any politician.
Complete story
2005
Fair Tax Solution for American Manufacturing and American Jobs
By Merrill
Bender
December 21, 2005
One of General Motors key parts suppliers, Delphi Corporation,
filed for bankruptcy on October 8th and has sought wage concessions
from its Unions to lower the average wage from $27/hour to as
low as $12/hour. Wage pressure comes primarily from the low almost
slave like wages paid in foreign countries to their workers and
those foreign countries being able to export their cheap goods
to the U.S. This high cost of wage argument has been a consistent
problem and call by American Manufacturers that are trying to
compete in a global marketplace as well as compete within the
American Marketplace.
CNN's Lou Dobbs almost competes with Bill O'Reilly in his level
of indignation and outrage on how American Manufacturing Jobs
are leaving American Shores. However, they and many other Americans
misunderstand and dismiss the serious grassroots support and supporting
research for a solution that will truly help the "little
guy" and restore good paying American Jobs. Complete
story
Understand the FairTax before commenting on
it
Bob Clark - letter
to the editor
Athens Banner-Herald
August 31, 2005
Judging from recent letters to the editor, it is clear many people
have either not read "The FairTax Book," do not understand
our economy, want the government to continue to control and spend
our money, or simply are against any changes.
The FairTax, a national sales tax that would replace the federal
income tax, would benefit the poor more than the wealthy. This
is clearly explained in the book. We currently have an embedded
tax on all retail goods and services we buy. Everyone needs to
learn what an embedded tax means. This is key to understanding
the fair tax. Complete
story
FairTax will bring economic growth
Hal Turner - letter
to the editor
Athens Banner-Herald
August 29, 2005
I was happy to read Rick Waters' comments on the FairTax, a federal
legislative proposal for a national sales tax to replace income
taxes (Letters, "'Fair tax' proposal could initiate black
market," Aug. 25). A change so drastic warrants much healthy
debate. Waters raises the issue of the Roth Individual Retirement
Account, which allows funds to grow free from taxes on interest
and appreciation. It is, however, subject to strict redemption
rules, limits and steep custodial fees. By eliminating taxes on
earnings, interest and capital gains, the FairTax plan extends
the Roth IRA benefit to everyone, with no limits and no fees.
Complete
story
The Fair Tax and Neal Boortz
by Jan Larson
The Conservative Voice
August 28, 2005
Last week I attended a book signing by radio talk show host,
Neal Boortz. Boortz is on tour promoting The FairTax Book, co-authored
by Rep. John Linder (R-GA). As of this writing, The FairTax Book
has been number one on the New York Times bestseller list for
two consecutive weeks.
The book describes the origins of the federal income tax, the
insidious nature of tax withholding, corporate and payroll taxes
and how politicians over the years have attempted to make the
collection of taxes from working Americans as painless as possible
in order to make more taxation agreeable to the masses. Complete
story
Keep the cash with national sales tax
By Chris Bennett, Staff Writer; Jason Nimer,
Viewpoints Editor
The Sentinel, Official newspaper of Kennesaw State University
Published: Wednesday, August 24, 2005
This article is about taxes, which is, without question, the
most boring subject in the known universe. So why even bother
to bring it up? In an attempt to make April 15 just another beautiful
spring day for all Americans, Georgia Congressman John Linder
and his buddy, libertarian talk show host Neal Boortz, have devised
a "fair tax" plan. This plan abolishes the IRS and income
taxes in favor of a national sales tax, which, they say, will
be about 23 cents to every dollar. Both sides of this issue have
hotly debated how well this "fair tax" would work in
practice, but on the surface, it seems like something every one
of us should support. Complete
story
For once I agree with Neal Boortz
Brian Clarey, Editor
YES! Weekly Greensboro, NC
There are some things that I have to see for myself.
In this case I’m talking about Neal Boortz, the boorish
radio talk show host who was in town last week to sign copies
of his book, The FairTax Book, at Barnes & Noble.
I kind of like Boortz, whose radio show airs every weekday from
10 a.m. until 1 p.m. on 101.1 FM WZTK. And the fact that I kind
of like him is something that disturbs me because I used to kind
of dislike him. And before that I openly despised him.
I still think he’s an ass, but he’s the kind of ass
who’s right often enough that it would be unwise not to
listen to the things that come out of his big, loud mouth.
Things like the Fair Tax.
I’m down with the Fair Tax. Way down. Have been since Frank
Zappa brought it up when he was considering running for president
on the Libertarian ticket back in those heady days of the mid-to-late
’80s, before Zappa succumbed to cancer. Complete
story
Sales of Boortz book spike as interest
in fair tax increases
By MATT KEMPNER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/20/05
The self-proclaimed High Priest of the Church of the Painful Truth
is power-walking through Concourse B at an impressive pace for
a man limping on a recuperating knee. He's on a scouting mission:
Are shops at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport stocking
his latest book? Complete
story
