Has the Time Come For Us to Switch to the Fair Tax? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    -- It would force even illegal immigrations to pay their fair share in taxes. Immigrants who are here illegally (ie, broke the law to be here), are not paying any federal income tax yet they are sucking the lifeblood out of government benefits and other social programs, including public education and subsidized healthcare. With the Fair Tax, they would pay their taxes just like everyone else; and

    -- It would eliminate the temptation to commit a number of crimes. For one thing, there would be no benefit to working "under the table." Right now, people who don't report their income (tax cheaters) are not only not paying into the system, but they are often sending large sums of their unreported income back to their home countries. With the Fair Tax, this problem vanishes, as does every other tax fraud-related crime, which currently costs the Treasury a figure running into at least the tens of billions; and

    -- It would also eliminate crimes of political corruption, as politicians would be unable to repay big donors with tax favors; and

    -- It would eliminate even the possibility that an otherwise honest taxpaying citizen might be tempted to cheat the system. There is no opportunity to cheat on sales tax. If you don't pay the tax, the purchase is not complete; and

    -- It would restore individual privacy rights. After all, if the federal government is such a big fan of privacy in the bedroom, in the abortion clinic, and in the sex of who we choose to marry, shouldn't it also respect the privacy associated with our career advances, our income, our wallets, our bank accounts, and in our property; and

    -- Also speaking of privacy, it eliminates the need to declare who you live with (marriage clarification); and

    -- By abolishing the IRS, it restores to churches and nonprofit organizations the First Amendment rights they now hesitate to use, for fear of losing tax-exempt status; and

    -- By allowing individuals and families to keep more of their income, it will encourage greater charitable donations; and

    -- It would eliminate the opportunity the government has of using taxation as a means of political harassment, intimidation, oppression, or retribution. The government cannot use the tax code or the IRS' audit powers to penalize any one group or individual; and

    -- It honors the American ideal that the more one is willing to work, the harder you are willing to work, the more you are willing to invest in your education and career, the more one should benefit and enjoy the fruits of his/her labor and the more wealth one should be able to accumulate. In other words, they don't PUNISH success or stigmatize it and they don't penalize and weaken the American work ethic (by sending the message that with government providing handouts on the one hand to those who won't work and plundering the salaries of those who work on the other hand, it is more desirable to go with option #1); and

    -- It enables workers and retirees to receive 100% of their paychecks and pension benefits; and

    -- It encourages saving and investing, thereby providing capital needed for creation of jobs and economic growth; and

    -- It classifies tuition as an investment in human capital rather than consumption, thereby making education about half as expensive as it is now; and

    -- Along with other economic advantages, the Fair Tax would actually bring down the cost of goods by eliminating embedded taxes included in the price of goods and services. Approximately 20% of what a consumer pays for any given good or service right now represents what the business has to tack on to cover the cost of compliance with our onerous tax regulations (and as we all know, businesses always pass those costs on to the consumer). Without these costs, the prices of goods and services will come down approximately 20%. If the Fair Tax imposes a 23% national sales tax while at the same time reducing current costs by 20% due to imbedded taxes that are not longer required, then consumers would essentially be paying the exact same price for goods and services without having to file a tax return in April and surrender any more of their earnings and property; and

    -- It would create jobs!! The Fair Tax would reverse the current destructive trend whereby businesses and jobs are being chased out of the country because of a burdensome, insanely-complex tax code. It would bring all those businesses and jobs back to America. Even more, the promise of no corporate taxes and no tax compliance costs ($3 in compliance costs to pay $1 in payroll and income taxes) would lure new businesses and jobs here. The US could become the most attractive tax-free haven in the world for doing business; and

    -- It solves the problem of double-taxation (for example, when a publicly-traded company pays corporate taxes on its earnings and then passes on some of those earnings onto shareholders as dividends, on which they must pay individual income tax or capital gains tax); and

    -- It would further the "Go Green!" movement by making obsolete the process of sending out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions every year (Fun facts: (1) It takes 30,000 trees each year to produce all the paper the IRS needs, even with the availability of electronic filing. (2) If all these pages were laid end-to-end, they would circle around the Earth 28 times); and

    -- Further, with respect to the 'conservation of resources' movement, since the Fair Tax applies to the purchase of new products (such as homes, cars, furniture, clothes), it encourages proper maintenance and care, recycling and reuse. People will not only first look to buy used homes, cars, etc, but owners will take better care of their items; and

    -- It supports every aspect of the working world. The Fair Tax applies only to items for personal consumption. If the new item is NOT for personal consumption, it is not taxed. (For example, if a business owner buys a piece of new equipment for his business or a farmer buys a new tractor for his farm, they do not pay the consumption tax on those item. In this way, the Fair Tax supports every aspect of the working world, from the business owner to the working man; and

    -- It eliminates the stress and anxiety of wondering if tax returns were filled out properly, if income was declared correctly, and if one will be subjected or targeted for an audit (As Will Rogers said: "The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has. Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don't know when it's through if you are a crook or a martyr."); and

    -- It is capable of being understood by all persons and don't require the assistance and services (not cheap!) of a CPA; and

    -- It eliminates the present bias against work, saving, and investment caused by taxing income and instead, substitutes a moral-based system of contributing to the government (ie, everyone contributes to a government that serves them equally). Eliminating this bias will lead to higher rates of economic growth, greater productivity of labor, rising real wages, more jobs, lower interest rates, and a higher standard of living for all Americans; and

    -- It offers other economic benefits:

1. U.S. exports could compete with foreign goods, as imports would be subject to the same Fair Tax as domestic products;
2. Reduces production costs for currently subsidized businesses like farming, leading to a reduction in subsidies, which would reduce the federal budget (aka spending cuts)
3. Consumption has been shown to be more stable than income, therefore the tax revenue stream would likely be a more predictable amount and inflation could be better prevented
4. By eliminating capital gains tax, investments in business would be encouraged
5. By eliminating the death tax, families could keep their farms and businesses
6. By eliminating the gift tax, individuals could offer tax-free assistance to each other
7. By eliminating the need for states, counties, municipalities and school districts to pay FICA, those entities would see significant increases in their available budget revenues;

    Therefore, be it ....

    Resolved, that to be competitive in the next century and to renew the American dream, we must change the way we fund our national government; and

    Resolved, that the ________________________ (group name) believes that the benefits of the Fair Tax are compelling and offer solutions far beyond mere tax reform; and

    Resolved, that eliminating the income tax will do more than anything else to shift the power from Washington back to the People; and

    Resolved, that the ________________________ (group name) requests that North Carolina representatives in both the US House and US Senate move to bring bills H.R.25 and S.122 to their respective floor for discussion and vote; and let it be further

    Resolved, that the ________________________ (group name) urges all representatives in both the NC and US Houses and Senate to publically declare their positions on the FairTax bills.

    Reference:

    [1] - H.R. 25 is also called the "Fair Tax Act of 2013." It's full title is: "Bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national sales tax to be administered primarily by the States." Bill Summary: "Fair Tax Act of 2013 - (i) Repeals the income tax, employment tax, and estate and gift tax. (ii) Re-designates the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as the Internal Revenue Code of 2013. (iii) Imposes a national sales tax on the use or consumption in the United States of taxable property or services. (iv) Sets the sales tax rate at 23% in 2015, with adjustments to the rate in subsequent years. (v) Allows exemptions from the tax for property or services purchased for business, export, or investment purposes, and for state government functions....." Assigned to Congressional Committee Jan. 3, 2013]

    http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr25 and http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s122

    References:

    The US Constitution

    www.fairtax.org

    "How Some States Did Not Legally Ratify the Sixteenth Amendment" - http://www.givemeliberty.org/features/taxes/notratified.htm

    Diane Schrader, "The Top 7 Reasons (and One Promising Way) to Abolish the IRS For Good," News Real Blog, February 2, 2011. Referenced at:

    http://www.newsrealblog.com/2011/02/02/the-top-7-reasons-and-one-promising-way-to-abolish-the-irs-for-good-1/

    Publisher's note: Diane Rufino has her own blog, For Love of God and Country. Come and visit her. She'd love your company.