What opportunities come with tax reform?

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March 14, 2013

What opportunities come with tax reform?

Anonymous Weatherford Democrat The Weatherford Democrat Thu Mar 14, 2013, 05:51 AM CDT

Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of articles in support of the Fair Tax.

By PAUL LIVINGSTON

Here is a short list of big problems:

• Stimulate jobs and economic growth.

• Increase disposable income.

• Regain lost economic and financial freedoms.

• Reducing taxing power of politicians, lobbyists and special interest groups.

• Reduce poverty.

• Making federal taxes easy to understand and pay.

• Improve funding for Social Security and Medicare.

• Unify our country.

Please think about this list, which one is at the top of your wish list?

But wait, why choose? There is one solution for all these problems. Start by moving the tax base from income, savings and investments to a tax base on consumption. One tax can work, a progressive sales/consumer tax system on all new goods and services. The solution is the FairTax, bill HR25/S122.

The FairTax was developed by the Americans for Fair Taxation after years of research and study with $22 million in private funds. This research is not associate with any political party, was done outside the Washington D.C. beltway and not influenced by lobbyists.

How does the FairTax stimulate jobs and economic growth? It eliminates 22 cents per dollar in hidden/embedded taxes that we, the final consumer, finally pay in higher prices charged by businesses to pay their taxes. Prices of U.S. goods and services go down and become more competitive in the world markets to bring jobs and growth. The tax code change will bring capital to our economy. The USA becomes a tax-free haven for business. The FairTax creates, without government spending and more debt, a jobs and economic stimulus program.

Disposable income goes up as the FairTax eliminates the salary deductions for income taxes and the regressive payroll taxes of Social Security and Medicare. You now get your whole paycheck before state tax dedications. Plus U.S. citizens get a monthly tax rebate, called a Prebate, to pay the FairTax up to the subsistence level spending. For most families the gain in disposable income will more than pay for the FairTax tax.

The IRS is gone. No annual income tax filing. You get your entire pay before state tax deductions. Think of the FairTax as a progressive tax on the standard of living that you can afford. The more you spend the more FairTax you pay and at a higher tax rate.

Politicians and lobbyists now use the tax code to their advantage to pick winners and losers, punish and reward and to divide and conquer. There are 17,500 tax lobbyists versus 537 elected officials in Washington, a ratio of 32-to-1. The FairTax will dismantle this taxing system that has grown to over 73,000 pages after 100 years since the passage of the 16th Amendment.

The FairTax fights poverty with the jobs and economic stimulus, increasing disposable income, no FairTax on used goods and the prebate to untax up to subsistence level spending.

Last year we spent $450 billion to comply with the federal tax code. The FairTax is a pay-as-you-spend system, 23 cents per dollar in the sale price of all new goods and services. The FairTax you pay will show on your paid receipt.

The FairTax does not change the Social Security and Medicare programs. It does move the tax base for these programs to the larger and more stable tax of consumption.

The FairTax is good for tax payers and business. The FairTax is a progressive tax with no deductions, exceptions or exclusions. The FairTax offers much for all Americans to like and embrace. The FairTax can be a unifier and bring our country together again.

Please take these actions. Learn more at www.fairtax.org. Sign up to support real/true tax reform. Call your U.S. representative and senators and ask them to co-sponsor the FairTax bill, HR 25/S122.

Paul Livingston is a Jacksonville, Fla., resident and FairTax volunteer and district director. Contact him at paulforfairtax@yahoo.com.

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