Ahhhh… April. Thoughts of spring; Easter; baseball; San Jacinto Day (a Texan thing)… and taxes!
I have never been more disgusted with tax preparation than this year. Don’t know why. I even enjoyed work as a part-time tax preparer a few years ago. But this year, the time I have needed to dedicate to tax preparation has just annoyed me. I didn’t want to go through the paperwork & IRS instruction hassles. Ridiculous!
This is why I have become more & more attracted to the grassroots, non-partisan Americans for Fair Tax movement. If you have never heard of the Fair Tax, or want to learn more about it, a wealth of information is available at http://www.fairtax.org/.
When I first heard of the Fair Tax plan, I was not in favor of it. It is, simplistically stated, a national sales tax. Who wants that? But before jumping to uninformed conclusions, give it a fair hearing. Take the time to be informed about its benefits. The website is full of research. I believe that the Fair Tax proposal is the most well-researched tax reform proposal around.
Here are some highlights of the proposal directly from the website: “The FairTax plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue replacement, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment. This nonpartisan legislation (HR 25) abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities. The IRS is disbanded and defunded. The FairTax taxes us only on what we choose to spend on new goods or services, not on what we earn. The FairTax is a fair, efficient, transparent, and intelligent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system.”
If the Fair Tax proposal makes sense to you, consider joining the online campaign to fax at least 100,000 messages of support to your Senators & Representative in Congress by this year’s tax day of April 17.
I have never been more disgusted with tax preparation than this year. Don’t know why. I even enjoyed work as a part-time tax preparer a few years ago. But this year, the time I have needed to dedicate to tax preparation has just annoyed me. I didn’t want to go through the paperwork & IRS instruction hassles. Ridiculous!
This is why I have become more & more attracted to the grassroots, non-partisan Americans for Fair Tax movement. If you have never heard of the Fair Tax, or want to learn more about it, a wealth of information is available at http://www.fairtax.org/.
When I first heard of the Fair Tax plan, I was not in favor of it. It is, simplistically stated, a national sales tax. Who wants that? But before jumping to uninformed conclusions, give it a fair hearing. Take the time to be informed about its benefits. The website is full of research. I believe that the Fair Tax proposal is the most well-researched tax reform proposal around.
Here are some highlights of the proposal directly from the website: “The FairTax plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue replacement, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment. This nonpartisan legislation (HR 25) abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities. The IRS is disbanded and defunded. The FairTax taxes us only on what we choose to spend on new goods or services, not on what we earn. The FairTax is a fair, efficient, transparent, and intelligent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system.”
If the Fair Tax proposal makes sense to you, consider joining the online campaign to fax at least 100,000 messages of support to your Senators & Representative in Congress by this year’s tax day of April 17.
5 comments:
Recognizing the merits of and supporting the FairTax is exciting! Realizing the FairTax has been implemented will be extraordinarily exhilarating!
But we cannot forget that other good ideas like women's sufferage, repeal of prohibition, civil rights and indeed the independence of this country did not happen until the people began to push for it to happen in a swell of grassroots support that culminated in their taking action.
What action? You've got to let your Senators and Representatives know of your support for the FairTax and request them to become a co-sponsor of either S1025 or HR25. Write, call, fax or e-mail.
And visit www.FairTax.org to find more ways that we can have the FairTax become the law of the land!
The "fair" tax proponents all seem a bit delusional. I'm assuming the proposals are nothing more than typical big govt republican party propaganda to persuade the party followers that tax reform is taking place. Until the tax "reformers" start to propose extreme reductions in the 3 trillion of spending, revenue neutral tax proposals will do nothing to reform the tax system.
Dave,
Thank you for taking the time to visit & comment. My observations: (1) The Fair Tax reform is not Republican party propoganda. It is one of the most non- or bi-partisan proposals around. (2) Since it does not address decreasing taxes, some are inclined to oppose it. (Conversely, since it does not address increasing taxes, some are inclined to oppose it). But it is certainly tax reform of the greatest magnitude. The more I learn about it, the more I am in favor of it, especially the elimination of personal filing hassles & incomprehensible instructions. (3) What tax reform proposal do you support?
People who support H.R.25, the alleged fair tax, should keep in mind it does not propose to get rid of taxes calculated from profits, gains salaries, and other "incomes". And, none of the co-sponsors of H.R. 25 propose to get rid of taxes calculated from profits, gains salaries and other “incomes”.
The architects of H.R. 25 have left a very clever loophole in the language of H.R. 25 allowing Congress to continue calculating taxes from profits, gains and other “incomes“ if H.R. 25 were adopted. This of course would also allow a continuance of the existing misery of record keeping under taxes laid upon “incomes“.
H.R.25 stipulates the following:
SEC. 101. INCOME TAXES REPEALED.
SEC. 102. PAYROLL TAXES REPEALED.
SEC. 103. ESTATE AND GIFT TAXES REPEALED.
But, there is no language in H.R. 25 suggesting to repeal all taxes which may be calculated from profits, gains, salaries and other “incomes”! Why is this pertinent and ought to cause alarm? To understand this one must study FLINT v. STONE TRACY CO., 220 U.S. 107 (1911), a case decided prior to the adoption of the 16th Amendment. The Court upheld an excise tax, 'the corporation tax' law of 1909, which was laid upon the privilege of being a Corporation and the amount of tax to be paid was calculated from profits and gains realized under the corporate charter granted by government. Although such a tax looks like and quacks like an “income tax”, it is not a generic “income tax” and is not even suggested to be repealed by the language of H.R. 25!
If H.R. 25 were adopted, Congress would have no difficulty finding a justification to use its “excise” taxing power to enact an excise tax on the “windfall profits” of those evil corporations and then calculate the amount of tax to be paid from their profits. Or, how about also laying a windfall profits excise tax on those evil and wealthy scoundrels in America who make millions of dollars a year in profits by “bleeding the poor working people“, such as was alleged about Leona Helmsley who they sent to jail for an alleged tax fraud, but who actually contributed more in federal taxes than any twenty average working people in New York?
If the architects of H.R. 25 are really sincere and determined about ending taxes calculated from income, then they would have said so in crystal clear language and proposed the following:
“The Sixteenth Amendment is hereby repealed and Congress is henceforth forbidden to lay ``any`` tax or burden calculated from profits, gains, interest, salaries, wages, tips, inheritances or any other lawfully realized money”
But as it turns out, not one of the co-sponsors of H.R.25 have proposed a companion bill to H.R. 25 with specific language proposing a constitutional amendment to forbid Congress from calculating any tax or burden from “profits, gains, interest, salaries, wages, tips, inheritances or any other lawfully realized money”, and is absolutely necessary to end the misery which now occurs under “income taxation”. What has been proposed by some of the co-sponsors of H.R. 25 is the following clever and empty language:
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. J. RES. 16
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the sixteenth article of amendment.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:
`Article --
`The sixteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.'.
And what do the architects of H.R. 25 propose within the language of H.R. 25? The language of H.R. 25 merely says that the 16th Amendment “should be repealed”. But if H.R. 25 were adopted, and 10 or 15 years down the road the 16th Amendment by some remote chance is finally repealed by the above proposed language in H. J. RES. 16, Congress still maintains the power to calculate taxes from profits, gains, salaries and other “incomes” under its excise taxing powers, and, the SCOTUS has already upheld such a tax in the FLINT CASE mentioned above!
H.R. 25 is nothing more than another way to expand Congress’s taxing power to reach property, real and personal with a 23 percent tax while keeping alive Congress’s power to lay and collect taxes calculated from profits, gains and other “incomes”.
H.R.25 is also designed to divide the people and distract them from real tax reform such as:
“The Sixteenth Amendment is hereby repealed and Congress is henceforth forbidden to lay ``any`` tax or burden calculated from profits, gains, interest, salaries, wages, tips, inheritances or any other lawfully realized money”
The above wording if added to our Constitution, would bringing us back to ourFOUNDING FATHER‘S ORIGINAL TAX PLANwhich was created by tax rebels and designed to control the actions of Congress, rather than having Congress control the people.
Regards,
JWK
JWK, thank you much for your post. Have you submitted this to the fairtax folks? If so, what is their reply?
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