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The FairTax Book: Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS

Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 10 years, 9 months ago to Books
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The FairTax Book: Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS

Authors, Neal Boortz & Congressman John Linder
196 pages. ISBN 978-0-06-087549-7

This short book detailing the FairTax was a #1 New York Times Bestseller.

I looked through my library in search of and intending to write a review of a book that offered some solutions to our present problems. I believe this book fits the bill. If we wish to reform our government and reclaim our liberty there can be no more effective way than to remove the easily abused funding method. I have heard many suggestions and objections regarding this option. This book explores and answers them all.

The many seemingly insurmountable financial problems facing us make this option very attractive. From addressing the “Social Security tax, the Medicare tax, corporate income taxes, the death tax, the self-employment tax, the alternative minimum tax, the gift tax, capital gains taxes, tax audits, and some major headaches every April 15” this is the most fair, possible and workable solution. It is not the be all, end all, to all of our problems but it is likely the most effective first step we could take.

What would be the best way to fund our federal government? My preference has little probability of occurring, but this option has some chance of passing and is thus, I believe, the best option considering our present political climate. The proposal is fair; it treats all taxpayers equally and the benefits are manifold. The poor would not pay any more than they do now. The middle class and even the rich would benefit. The only losers are the grafters, special interests and lobbyists who care not that their efforts push the burdens of their successes on the backs of others.

Mr. Boortz and Congressman Linder have written a very important short read for anyone interested in learning about and promoting something that could really help. Mr. Boortz has retired from the radio and Congressman Linder retired from congress in 2011, but their book continues in the effort to promote the proposal.

Do you want to turbo charge our economy? Take back your liberty? Constrain the tyrants? Please read this book and investigate www.FairTax.org for detailed information about the proposal and how you can help. If you find it acceptable, then please urge your representatives in government to support the effort.

Respectfully,
O.A.

All Comments

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  • Posted by johnmford 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Your points are very well taken. I do want to address your first statement though. You state that the fairtax plan helps the poorest by alleviating their tax burden. According to the fairtax book, it does not matter what your income level is. A poor family of 4 receives the same prebate as a middle class family of 4, as well as a wealthy family of 4. And remember, the prebate only covers the tax on essentials (ie. food,clothing etc). Again, not based on income but rather family size.
    Also I am not sure I would be comfortable with the IRS having more control that they already have. The ongoing scandal in DC reinforces my belief. The second of the fairtax books explains very clearly why any tax on income places far to much power in DC and not in the hands of the public. The fairtax is a tax on outgo not income. I agree that no tax program is perfect but this one seems better that any I have heard of so far
    Thanks

    johnf
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  • Posted by Hiraghm 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I also favor a national sales tax, but it must be placed in the Amendment that all tax rates must be the same for all goods with no exception.

    That means that beer and Cheetohs are taxed at the same rate as milk and baby formula. That tobacco and radial tires are taxed at the same rate.

    Otherwise the feds can and will continue to use the tax code to coerce behavior.
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  • Posted by plusaf 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Most fair/flat tax proposals include some kind of 'help the poorest by alleviating their tax burden.;

    MY flat tax would have all payroll flow through the IRS, which would keep a running balance of your total SALARY and direct deposit ALL of it back to your account UNTIL you reached the 'poverty level minimum' or whatever, after which 90%, give or take, would be remitted to your account. Computer-driven with no ifs ands or butts involved.

    Just one way of keeping moochers and cheaters from gaming the system. No, not perfect by any means, but a starting/talking point.

    Some time last year, I believe it was, there was a proposal in Switzerland to give EVERY citizen a certain minimum 'pay'... thousands of dollars... to ensure that nobody starved for lack of money.

    Maybe it never got implemented, but the connection is that 'enlightened' societies (said tongue-in-cheek) often seem to try to do SOMETHING to 'help the needy.'

    I saw the two 'methods' as having a kind of similarity. I do that kind of thing.

    But "make no mistake about it..." MY favorite 'plan' would have NO deductions or subsidies, including price supports, for anyone (human or corporate.)

    If you can't hack it on your own, (human OR corporate) try begging via Crowdsourcing or public charities, but in no way should/can you decide, even with a plurality or majority vote, to TAKE money from someone else for any reason, without their express agreement.

    Better?
    Thanks.
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  • Posted by BambiB 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    When considering the idea of revolution, I can't help but remember "Chief Moose" and the Beltway "sniper(s)". Two half-wit clowns, shooting from the trunk of their car at ranges of 50-70 yards went for weeks terrorizing a good portion of the DC area.

    Imagine if even 1/100th of 1% of gun owners took a similar tack regarding oath-violating politicians? 10,000+ snipers working independently to take out politicians?
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  • Posted by johnmford 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I've not heard anything about this. I also a bit confused as to what Switzerland has to do with the Fairtax?

    johnf
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  • Posted by freedomforall 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Hopefully, enough brave sovereign people to bear them, Thomas Paine's to rally them, Thomas Jefferson's and Ben Franklin's to represent them as a free people, and Francis Marion's, J.E.B. Stuart's, Stonewall Jackson's, Andrew Jackson's, and Robt E Lee's to lead them and to rain destruction on the followers of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Clay, Nelson Aldrich, and John Maynard Keynes.
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  • Posted by $ winterwind 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Sounds like the frog in the boiling water again. [start with room-temperature water and increase it slowly - the frog won't desperately try to escape. Put it right into boiling water and it will try to escape right away.}
    In many ways, I want the tax system to be as onerous as possible so that people are as desperate about it as possible, and have incentive to change it.
    Making slight changes, for the better, will just lull people into a "I can do this, it's not so bad" frame of mind. That's not where they should be - and I don't think it helps our cause for them to be comfortable.
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  • Posted by plusaf 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Any new reports on Switzerland's plan to prebate ALL of its citizens to a 'minimum yearly wage'?
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  • Posted by BambiB 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Actually, I just checked the Fair Tax book. Turns out the proposal is for tax at the retail level ONLY (i'd forgotten that) and the tax appears on the receipts (forgot that too). It's not a VAT (which gets applied multiple times throughout the production process) because it's a one-time tax on NEW items only, at the retail level. Which actually doesn't sound bad as an exchange for an end to ALL taxes on income (SS, medicare, FICA, etc.) About that rate though… 23%? I'd call that a starting point. Let's say we decrease it by 1% every 2 years until it's zero. NOW yer talking!
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  • Posted by BambiB 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Which is why we have a Second Amendment… and 300 million firearms in private hands.
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  • Posted by $ AJAshinoff 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Agreed. Each State should connect its taxes and then pay the fed gov a portion. The fed gov should have no authority to directly tax 320 million individuals and countless millions of private business. In this way States can take care of their own needs without having to put a hand out and take on the bridle from the fed gov.
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  • Posted by $ AJAshinoff 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Cains' 9-9-9 wasn't half bad either (though not perfect to me). I think a small tax based on consumer consumption would be the most fair way if taxes had to be taken.
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  • Posted by Technocracy 10 years, 9 months ago
    Personally I prefer a flat tax and for that matter have it be consumption based so everybody pays.

    "Fair" anything is too relative an adjective for me to be comfortable with it.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I don't agree with minimums unless that is also the level below which you don't get a vote at all. I believe that governmental policies create incentives and disincentives for behavior, and that you need to think of every piece of legislation in that manner. Tax floors act as a barrier to moving up. Our current system has a MASSIVE tax floor such that someone making $25K/yr but who gets government subsidies makes as much in actual take-home as someone making $45K/yr. That's flat-out absurd, but comes from the idea that a tax floor should exist. I say no.
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The bill provides that any increases must be tied to GDP growth. The underground economy argument is neutral except at the new product or service retail level. You may purchase all the used goods you wish tax free, but will pay on new items. You may barter your services with others. The problem now is that all that avoid the taxes completely in an underground economy, are responsible for the losses which the government makes up for by increasing taxes on the rest of us.
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The FairTax bill provides for this. It mandates that the tax is itemized on your receipt and ties any increases to the rate of GDP.
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Hello bassboat,
    Thank you for the added commentary. That is the way to sell it! :) For those still with questions, the site/link I provided has answers.
    Respectfully,
    O.A.
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