Fred better pay a visit to FairTax.org in Houston so he understands what he said "absolutely" about. While many who are invested in the current income tax system seek to demagog the well-researched FairTax plan (*), its acceptance in the professional / academic community continues to grow. Failure to enact the FairTax - choosing instead to try to "flatten" a NON-FLATTENABLE income tax system - will result in nothing less than an irrevocable economic meltdown. (Impossible, you say?)

Here is why the FairTax MUST replace the income tax. It's:

• SIMPLE, easy to understand
• EFFICIENT, inexpensive to comply with and doesn't cause less-than-optimal business decisions for tax minimization purposes
• FAIR, loophole free and everyone pays their share
• LOW TAX RATE, achieved by broad base with no exclusions
• PREDICTABLE, doesn't change, so financial planning is possible
• UNINTRUSIVE, doesn't intrude into our personal affairs or limit our liberty
• VISIBLE, not hidden from the public in tax-inflated prices or otherwise
• PRODUCTIVE, rewards, rather than penalizes, work and productivity

Its benefits are as follows:

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"
• "Prebate" is "advance payback" for monthly consumption to poverty level
• FairTax's "prebate" 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

The time for sitting around, pontificating, is over. We have NO CHOICE but to ACT: Scrape The Code NOW

The way to "fix" the existing tax code and make it "fair" is to get rid of 20,000 pages of exceptions and loopholes and have a one paragraph regulation that says everybody, including corporations, files a tax return and pays according to the graduated tax rate in effect at the time.

The tax return would have three lines on it, one for gross income, one for the applicable rate, and one for the amount of tax due. Everybody would pay, from the poorest of the poor (who may only pay a minimum of $1 or something) to the richest of the rich.

Eliminate deductions and exemptions and credits for everything, and we could lower the graduated rate, probably quite dramatically.

One problem is that the tax code is the only tool the government seems to have to discourage bad behavior (failure to pay taxes or pay on time, dipping into retirement savings), and encourage good behavior (home ownership, saving for retirement, capital investment and expansion, etc.)

Maybe we should also change that to a system of rebates/rewards/subsidies and fines/fees outside the tax code. We might not be able to lower the tax rate quite as much, but at least it would be fair in the sense it would eliminate a lot of complicated accounting that only the wealthy and corporations can afford.

Do you think that even if the US went to this hair-brained, "I Love Lucy" type of scheme for taxation, that the rich would not find a way to avoid paying their share? Soon there would be exemptions for luxury items, cars priced over a certain amount, and any method of taxing the middle class while letting the very wealthy off the hook.

And according to the FairTax website, corporations do not pay any taxes! Damn, no wonder this is being pushed! Holy Crap! The reason given is because corporations "are legal fictions that have not, do not, and never will bear the burden of taxation. Only people pay taxes." Jesus Christ, corporations currently have more rights than people! It is easier for them to go bankrupt while shedding debt and keeping assets. They have more influence on elections. They own the lobbying system. They own the media. Now they no longer want to pay taxes while they use our infrastructure to earn profits! I pretty much see where all this effort is coming from now, corporations and rubes!

. . . and they simply wrap up their compliance costs and package them neatly in their pricing structure which is ultimately borne by a taxpaying, end user (directly, or indirectly).

C'mon, wake up, bub. The gov't you have "doing for you" ends up "doing YOU" (or maybe you're too young and idealistic to realize it yet - better review my incisive list of FairTax benefits, only this time, pause to think about each item).

I looked through Mr. Boortz' book recently to make my "Fair Tax" brother happy. I found my situation on page 260 something. (About to retire in a few years, decent amount of taxed income saved over the years)To paraphrase Mr. Boortz: "you're screwed but the Nation will benefit and you should feel good about that"
Thanks, but no.