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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.


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  • Posted by BambiB 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That's the theory. But IIRC, the tax is an EMBEDDED tax. There's nothing on the receipt that says,
    Car: $25,000
    Tax: $5500
    Total $30,500

    Instead, the receipt will simply read,

    Car: $30,500.

    Until they jack the tax… at which point it will be:

    Car: $38,000
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  • Posted by freedomforall 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I agree with you completely.
    Unfortunately the banksters who run the fedgov, the major party, the candidate selection process, election vote counting, etc etc do not. They require the income tax as security for the debt they create from nothing and loan to the fedgov. It is their method for control and enslavement of the once free sovereign people of the States united.
    They will never give it up without war,( and of course, they will finance the war.)
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  • Posted by BambiB 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I think your point is effectively the Heinlein gem: "Never appeal to a man's better nature. He might not have one. Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage."

    But how about this: Continue the current system, but tell everyone they get a 100% refund on every dollar withheld in federal taxes IF they pass the "budget slash" legislation. Instead of a piddling $500 rebate - how about $10,000? Or $20,000? This would at least get the workers up off their asses. Of course, the welfare queens would continue to vote against it.

    I don't rule out the "fair" tax as a stepping stone to no tax. But I have two issues with it.

    First, with blanket coverage and embedded taxing, it becomes too easy to "forget". This is the same problem we have with withholding. When you have to write a check for the full amount of taxes at the end of the year, it's PAINFUL. That pain is useful in keeping taxes low.

    Second, having all the taxing power rest in a single number (20%? 30%) makes incremental increases too easy. Who would fight a 0.5% increase? Too, there's no motivation to slash the size of government. That's why the "fair" tax talks about 22% tax. It's geared to maintaining the corrupt system we already have. A TRULY "fair" tax would be on the order of 2%. Remember, the last time we overthrew the government, it was over a 3% tax!

    There's a third consideration. Under the present system, it's possible to make a living in the underground economy. Screw the IRS. Screw the government. Go Galt. How do you do that with a "fair" tax?
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  • Posted by Zenphamy 10 years, 9 months ago
    I'd agree to the flat tax if it was zero. Same for a national sales tax.
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  • Posted by Hiraghm 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    No. If you're going to tax income (and I don't think you should), no exceptions, no loopholes, no conditionals. You tax the same percentage no matter what the income or income source. And then no additional taxes like "sin" taxes.

    I'd prefer a replacement for the 16th amendment that nullifies the 16th, and asserts a flat sales (or transaction) tax; mandating that all goods and transactions must be taxed at the same percentage rate, and that no additional taxes may be applied for some goods/services but not others, and that it must never rise above 15% of the gross value of the transaction.

    This addresses my biggest two concerns about taxation: limiting how much money the government takes to waste as they see fit, and preventing the government from using taxation to regulate behavior.
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  • Posted by khalling 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I am for a fee attached to transactions or contracts. In lieu of that I am with you - a flat tax. Based on income is arbitrary and does not reflect the use if govt services. It always was about the capture and one huge reason govt supported unions...income capture of the middle class
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  • Posted by plusaf 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I've never gotten any attention or traction on this, but I'm for the Flat Tax. When I read about the Fair Tax in some depth, I discovered some gaping holes in what it specifies... big enough to drive loopholes through. You have to "what if" the unintended consequences and missing items in it.

    Somewhere back around 1970, a local paper in NJ ran an article about taxes, and naturally did not look beyond the end of their first sentences. Even then, a 7% tax on ALL income from ALL sources (i.e., NO loopholes) would have brought the IRS exactly the same number of dollars as the convoluted crap they had even back then.

    I suggested a "floor" below which no tax would be collected... some relatively small multiple of an agreed-upon 'poverty' or 'minimum level' of income. With that, even in '70, I figured that a 10-13% 'tax on all income' would bring the IRS the same net dollars.

    Of course, since they'd need SO MANY FEWER agents, things like that would probably push that optimum level of taxation down even lower.

    It won't happen, though. CPAs may gripe, but everyone doing taxes for someone else will 'be hurt' and will oppose it, let alone the 'public servants' at the IRS who'd be facing massive layoffs, too.

    They'd all convince Congress that making those 'simplifications' would be disastrous for the US economy.

    Figures lie and liars figure and Follow the Money.

    And remember my 33rd Law... http://www.plusaf.com/falklaws.htm#33rd
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  • Posted by bassboat 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It is much easier than our current system of paying taxes. Consumers would not be affected one iota. Businesses would have to multiply their sales by 23% and that is it. We spend $450 billion on preparing income taxes each year. How wasteful is that? That alone would be a pretty good stimulus. Read the book.
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  • Posted by bassboat 10 years, 9 months ago
    He neglects to mention some of the perks of the Fair Tax that will sell it when Joe Six Pack understands it.
    1. Every citizen will get a rebate at the beginning of each month up to the poverty line so that the poor will be paying no imbedded sales tax. A family of four would get around $525 each month. The rich would get it as it is a Fair Tax that treats everyone the same. More children, bigger check.
    2.It shuts down the IRS, appeals to everyone.
    3. Retail prices would remain the same. How? You decrease the wholesale price of all items that are now imbedded with Federal tax dollars by 22%. You then sell that coke for a dollar like you did yesterday and pay the government 23% out of the retail price. Prices don't change. If a retail tries to keep that 22% he will go out of business fast via competition.
    4. Here's a biggie. The Fair Tax asked the 400 largest corporations outside of the US how the Fair Tax would impact their business decisions. 240 said that they would build their next plant in the US. The remaining 160 said that they would move their corporate headquarters here. Now that would be a stimulus provided with no stealing.
    5. The Fair Tax is revenue neutral for the treasury department. As a matter of fact a study was done and it showed that in 15 out of the last 16 quarters more revenue was collected.
    By the way, on each receipt that you get from the retailer it tells how much you are paying the bloated federal government in taxes. It is the hope that this will wake up the people just how much they are being taxed and lower that 23% to a much lower level. It is easy to see why politicians and lobbyists are scared to death of the bill. The Fair Tax has been lied about from all democrats in congress and most journalists. We just have to get the message to Joe Six Pack and whoever runs will walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If people got their pay in cash and then had to walk down the hall the tax escrow/withholding desk and hand over their taxes, we would have an instant tax reform revolution. Every time politicians decide to do something about a crisis abroad, enact longer prison sentences, overhaul healthcare laws, buy more books for poor kids or do anything that costs money, if everyone had to hand over their share of cash to cover it the following week on payday, the gov't would take many fewer actions.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I know. I wonder if they think that money came from a springtime version of Santa Claus or something.
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  • Posted by $ winterwind 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    O.A. - I'm vacillating between first and second. If one is on first, maybe they won't know what they're doing and we'll get off alive. Or maybe they'll react more strongly, hoping that nobody's on second.
    If one is on second, the reaction may be stronger, reasoning [?] that what they did the first time didn't work, so they have to do it, you will forgive the expression, longer and harder.
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  • Posted by 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "For them, it's not about what's best for the Country. For them, it's about what's best for them right now, this instant. These are the idiots who take out a gazillion dollars in student loans to fund their campus partying..." True enough. This is why the prebate is attractive as a means of enticing even the shortsighted.
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  • Posted by Temlakos 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    As ever,I have a different kind of mind. You see, I file my own income-tax returns. Now it's a long story--I don't get W-2's anymore, just 1099's. But I remember checking the W-2's and saying to myself, "I'd have liked to have that money paid to my own account, so that I could have earned interest on it."
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  • Posted by $ winterwind 10 years, 9 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Steve - think again about what you're saying. It's the Federal Government - "simple"? "little administration costs"? let alone privacy. There's not going to let go of that information just because there's a law.
    Way back when, you could claim sales tax paid as a deduction - keeping track of that was a real nightmare because you had to be able to prove it. The Neat Co.has made that easier, but still... Neat makes a little bitty scanner with software that reads what's scanned, like a receipt, and records it. You have to assign it a category, but it's really....neat.
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