WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMEN
If you haven't done so already, go here. For those of you who may not have a standards compliant browser, copy and paste this text - http://www.fairtax.org - into your address bar and learn all of the goodness.
You WANT the fair tax. Trust me - unless you're a liberal with communist tendencies that wants that largest government possible (i.e. you haven't been looking at your pay check to see how much is taken out in the form of taxes) then you WANT the fair tax!
Go buy the book - it's cheap and it'll take very little time to read.
A brief summary:
Individuals pay all of the income taxes in america. Yes, corporations deliver "income" taxes, but they pass those costs on to you - the individual - as a markup in the cost. This happens at every level down to the supplier of the raw materials. Some refer to this as the "embedded tax." With extensive study, it has been determined that the average embedded tax is 22%. So, for that $100 item you buy, $22 has been tied up in paying the income taxes of every supplier in the chain.
The fair tax would abolish all federal withholding from your paycheck. It is likely states would follow, but that is not part of this bill. So, when you look at your check and see what is taken out for Federal Income Tax, Social Security, and Medicare - you would keep ALL of that. So, where is the government supposed to get the money to make up for this?
The fair tax! In order to support current government funding levels, it has been calculated (and propsed in H.R. 25 and S.25) that the fair tax be set at 23%. Since this is replacing the embedded taxes, it will not be an additional tax to what the sticker price is. It will be included. So, if you buy a $100 item, the tax will already be included in your price - you pay only$100, not $123.
There may be concerns about poor folks. Under the fair tax, the government yearly calculates what poverty level spending is (essential goods like food, clothes, etc) and multiplies that by the tax rate. That value is then divided into 12 monthly installments and is credited to the head of household every month effectively refunding the tax that would be spent on essential items.
Some of the major benefits of this are:
1. it is estimated that the government takes in $1.5 trillion from income taxes every year (latest statistics are from 2002/3). Corporations and individuals spent nearly $500 billion (one third of the government's income) PURELY on compliance. So, by eliminating the IRS and the 16th amendment (which plainly violates the 4th [illegal search & seizure]) that is money that could be spent on other things thereby fuelling the economy AND generating MORE revenue for the government.
2. Wealthy foreign nationals & the "underground economy" (porn,drugs,illegal immigrants, etc...) would all pay taxes! When they buy fancy cars, clothes, electronics, real estate, food, etc... they might not be registered, legal citizens, but they pay the taxes on those goods they purchase.
There are many, many more benefits, but this should give you a taste of how great this can be.
Check out the website http://www.fairtax.org or let me know what questions you might have.
Then, call, email, AND write your congressmen and senators to tell them that you are behind this!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Q. "What about the poor?"
A. For Absolute, Poverty level spending all taxes paid are refunded. From the website: "To ensure no American pays tax on necessities, the FairTax plan provides a prepaid, monthly rebate for every registered household to cover the consumption tax spent on necessities up to the federal poverty level." Also, "The FairTax is progressive based on lifestyle/spending choices, rather than simply punishing those taxpayers who are successful."
The rebate is based on the poverty spending level (determined by the Department of Health & Human Services) multiplied by the tax rate. So, assuming 100% expenditure for necessities at that poverty level, a given poor family pays no tax because of the rebate. The only tax they would pay would be for non-essential items - electronics, cigarettes, alcohol, etc...
Also, the fair tax fully funds medicare and social security, so those aren't withheld from our paychecks AND employers don't "pay" the other half (really, the employee pays all of these in the form of lower wages). So, the poor - who in many ways benefit from social security and medicare don't even pay into those systems any longer.
So, the absolute tax liability for poverty level individuals/families is absolutely zero and what they bring home every month is increased.
You WANT the fair tax. Trust me - unless you're a liberal with communist tendencies that wants that largest government possible (i.e. you haven't been looking at your pay check to see how much is taken out in the form of taxes) then you WANT the fair tax!
Go buy the book - it's cheap and it'll take very little time to read.
A brief summary:
Individuals pay all of the income taxes in america. Yes, corporations deliver "income" taxes, but they pass those costs on to you - the individual - as a markup in the cost. This happens at every level down to the supplier of the raw materials. Some refer to this as the "embedded tax." With extensive study, it has been determined that the average embedded tax is 22%. So, for that $100 item you buy, $22 has been tied up in paying the income taxes of every supplier in the chain.
The fair tax would abolish all federal withholding from your paycheck. It is likely states would follow, but that is not part of this bill. So, when you look at your check and see what is taken out for Federal Income Tax, Social Security, and Medicare - you would keep ALL of that. So, where is the government supposed to get the money to make up for this?
The fair tax! In order to support current government funding levels, it has been calculated (and propsed in H.R. 25 and S.25) that the fair tax be set at 23%. Since this is replacing the embedded taxes, it will not be an additional tax to what the sticker price is. It will be included. So, if you buy a $100 item, the tax will already be included in your price - you pay only$100, not $123.
There may be concerns about poor folks. Under the fair tax, the government yearly calculates what poverty level spending is (essential goods like food, clothes, etc) and multiplies that by the tax rate. That value is then divided into 12 monthly installments and is credited to the head of household every month effectively refunding the tax that would be spent on essential items.
Some of the major benefits of this are:
1. it is estimated that the government takes in $1.5 trillion from income taxes every year (latest statistics are from 2002/3). Corporations and individuals spent nearly $500 billion (one third of the government's income) PURELY on compliance. So, by eliminating the IRS and the 16th amendment (which plainly violates the 4th [illegal search & seizure]) that is money that could be spent on other things thereby fuelling the economy AND generating MORE revenue for the government.
2. Wealthy foreign nationals & the "underground economy" (porn,drugs,illegal immigrants, etc...) would all pay taxes! When they buy fancy cars, clothes, electronics, real estate, food, etc... they might not be registered, legal citizens, but they pay the taxes on those goods they purchase.
There are many, many more benefits, but this should give you a taste of how great this can be.
Check out the website http://www.fairtax.org or let me know what questions you might have.
Then, call, email, AND write your congressmen and senators to tell them that you are behind this!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Q. "What about the poor?"
A. For Absolute, Poverty level spending all taxes paid are refunded. From the website: "To ensure no American pays tax on necessities, the FairTax plan provides a prepaid, monthly rebate for every registered household to cover the consumption tax spent on necessities up to the federal poverty level." Also, "The FairTax is progressive based on lifestyle/spending choices, rather than simply punishing those taxpayers who are successful."
The rebate is based on the poverty spending level (determined by the Department of Health & Human Services) multiplied by the tax rate. So, assuming 100% expenditure for necessities at that poverty level, a given poor family pays no tax because of the rebate. The only tax they would pay would be for non-essential items - electronics, cigarettes, alcohol, etc...
Also, the fair tax fully funds medicare and social security, so those aren't withheld from our paychecks AND employers don't "pay" the other half (really, the employee pays all of these in the form of lower wages). So, the poor - who in many ways benefit from social security and medicare don't even pay into those systems any longer.
So, the absolute tax liability for poverty level individuals/families is absolutely zero and what they bring home every month is increased.
And with this plan, paying taxes is entirely voluntary. If you buy things other than what are essential, then you pay tax. Otherwise, you get the taxes paid refunded.
So...when thousands of Americans cannot afford health insurance, are in debt for both voluntary and involuntary reasons, trying to survive with inflated real estate prices...we further penalize such persons by instituting a "fair" tax?
If rent/mortgage, car payment, etc., are all "taxed" in this way, a very low mortgage payment (600/mo) and a very low car payment (200/mo) would eat up about half of that "up to the poverty level" formula. Those are extremely low estimates, and do not account for health insurance premiums, car insurance premiums, loan payments, food, gasoline, etc.
and i like your name for josh and myself as well...thanks.
Speaking of the best, "sweet caroline! dum duh duh good times never seemed to good! i've been inclined dum duh duh to believe there never was...no no no..." *big evil grin*