Fair Tax? Is there such a thing as a fair tax?
Posted by Rob Longenecker on December 24th, 2007
You may have heard a little or a lot about the proposal called the “Fair Tax.” It sounds great, but we’ll have to see. Those who are for it like the following:
1. Get rid of the IRS totally. (Who likes the IRS anyway?)
2. No more income tax.
3. Pay tax only when you buy new stuff (23% sales tax level is being floated).
4. No more complicated tax reporting.
5. The poor would be compensated up to the “poverty level” (details avail. elsewhere)
6. No tax on savings and investment.
Naturally, there are those against it who say:
1. It favors the rich.
2. Sending the poor a monthly check to compensate them for the sales tax they paid (based upon the national “poverty level” figures) would be a whole new bureaucratic boondoggle.
3. 23% sales tax wouldn’t be enough – might need to be up to 50%.
4. No mortgage interest deduction (yeah, but you’re not paying income tax either.)
5. “It’s just a crackpot idea and it wouldn’t work.”
If you want to know more (I certainly do) then one place to look is Fairtax.org.
If you want to see how you’d make out under the Fair Tax there’s a Fair Tax Calculator.
Personally, I’d like to to see a “What’s the Chance It’ll Ever Happen? Calculator.”
December 25th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Great post, Rob.
I just don’t think the door-stops we elect to office are capable of much more than showing up. As to a “fair tax,” that strikes me as akin to “jumbo…shrimp,” or “hot water” HEATER.
Maybe a flat-rate percentage across all income levels could be construed as “fair.” Say, 5% across the board, irregardless of income level?
That won’t happen because it puts way too many folks out of business. The more complicated and convoluted our tax system is, and remains, the more folks are able to maintain employment. That runs the gamut from tax lawyers to accountants to software and book publishers.
Which reminds me, it’s Turbo Tax upgrade time. 🙂