FairTax

I think everyone agrees the current income tax system can be improved... but how about replaced

http://www.fairtax.org
from JoeUser Forums
I am not the kind of person to spoon-feed a concept to people. But for those who know anything about economics and taxes may find the FairTax bill appealing. I recently listened to the audiobook 'The FairTax Book'(available on the iTunes Store by the way).

The basic concept is to replace today's current income tax system with a consumption tax.
One concept that might peak some interest to the common person is that corporations DO NOT pay taxes. The corporate taxes are passed off to consumers and reflected in the current price of goods and services. So any time the government raises taxes on corporations, those corporations raise the price of their goods and services to offset the increased tax.

I got the idea to mention this from a few of Brad Wardell's recent blog posts. (I am a PowerUser listener, and have been from the beginning)


There are a lot of good ideas in the bill and Book (the site really doesn't do the book justice).

For those of you who have heard about it, what do you think?

And for others.. check it out or ask some questions.
2,652 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
I believe that taxes shouldn't be accepted by any party outside a reasonable distance from where services are rendered. I think the main problem is the taking of all this money and dumping it into an almost untraceable government coffer, managed by people who we didn't even vote for. I didn't vote for the vast majority of Congress, yet the majority of Congress can say where to spend my taxes.

To me it is taxation without representation. If taxation were left to the states, then the people who the money is spent on would be the people who had a say in its spending. Politics would be closer to home, and individual voters would mean more. The values of the community would be more prevalent, instead of fly-over America being crushed under the weight of the urban centers.

I think it is a great idea to revise our tax code, and honestly this seems like as palatable a way of doing things as any other I've heard. I don't think, though, that we'll make any real headway until we get the hands who take it and spend it as close to our front door as possible.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
I think your argument makes perfect sense and I agree.

The FairTax bill deals with how taxes are collected as opposed to how they are spent.

For example: The FairTax would eliminate the death tax (a form of income redistribution), eliminate the capital gains taxes (interest earned from investments would be tax-free), and give people more control over how much they are taxed.

The current system also puts American companies at a disadvantage. Another example is that the tax code has become so bloated that it takes a trained professional or a software program to effectively file your taxes. That is ridiculous.

Also, tax fraud goes right down the drain. Interesting Fact: When the government required parents to list a SSN for each of their children instead of just a name... millions of 'children' disappeared overnight. And I have personally heard fully grown people (I dare not say adults) trading SSN's to cheat on their taxes even today!
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
No doubt, but again what enables all that is the immensity of the system. To me it sounds like making a fix for a broken system, when you could just turn the system back over to the people and let them decide. Any decision made on the Federal level is going to be undemocratic, imho, because it is going to be made in the interest of party and PAC, and not in the interest of the voter.

To me, the only possible way to regain control of government is to get it as close to your front door as possible. With the Fair Tax you'll still have billions flowing into the black box of the Federal government to use and abuse as they like. IMHO any revision of taxation at the federal level will always mean more money taken and less services rendered. That's the way they like it, and no one can really stop them.