Have you guys heard of the FAIRtax? The folks complain about the negative effects of the income tax, the IRS and loss of property rights due to the 16th Amendment, but never talk about a fix. Well, I’ve got the fix and it is The Fair Tax Act of 2019 (The FAIRtax), HR 25 in the U.S. House. If you’re interested in learning about the only proposal in the congress defined to be revenue neutral, to repeal all income taxes, to abolish the IRS and to require repeal of the 16th within seven years, just let me know! I’d be happy to educate you on this important bill. Once you understand it, you’ll demand it! Pass the FAIRtax! |
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What the heck is the FAIRtax!
Have you guys heard of the FAIRtax? The folks complain about the negative effects of the income tax, the IRS and loss of property rights due to the 16th Amendment, but never talk about a fix.

11 replies on “What the heck is the FAIRtax!”
Here is more info.
https://fairtax.org/about/how-fairtax-works
This gives more depth.
https://fairtax-structure-psyclone.netdna-ssl.com/client_assets/fairtaxorg/media/attachments/5c4a/1584/6970/2d56/ed63/0f00/5c4a158469702d56ed630f00.pdf?1548359044
Been a Fair Tax proponent for years. Would love to see it. The biggest issue (as Laura points out) is that the 16th amendment would have to be repealed. Our congress-critters spend so much time messing with the tax code to benefit their $$ constituents that getting rid of that amendment is more terrifying to them than cutting off an appendage.
Yes I have! I agree with much of its premise, though I think it leaves a few bases uncovered.
I posted a similar topic just a few days ago called to Vote Every Dollar. You might find the ideas interesting. Take a look from a few days ago here on Billwhittle.Com in the
member blog area and check it out! I’ll be glad to hear your comments and ideas.
David, here’s the link to your previous post.
Thank you Sir! Didn’t think of that here on someone else’s site… I do it all the time on my own site!
“The Fair Tax” is a consumption tax. A straight no-exemptions 10% income tax (which would also be fair) is a different thing, which has also been proposed several times over the years (e.g, postcard tax returns), but has never acquired an umbrella organization to brand it and promote it.
I think people who believe that “the rich don’t pay their fair share” could be persuaded that the Fair Tax will cause the rich to pay more taxes, because teams of lawyers and accountants won’t be able to find any way to get them out of it except to advise them to buy a used plane or yacht instead of a new one. But even the most frugal rich person is still going to pay a lot in sales tax. How would Warren Buffet avoid buying anything new?
I’ve been more or less a proponent of the Fair Tax for years, but I have a few significant concerns about it:
1. It absolutely, positively must be done in conjunction with, or AFTER repealing the 16th Amendment. I know there is a plan to “repeal within X years” but I am skeptical. Think of all the “amnesty now and fix the border later” bills we’ve been hoodwinked over. I would only favor the bill if it were worded to not go into effect until after the repeal of the 16th is effected. Because we certainly do not want to give the federal government another way to tax us more so that we end up paying income taxes, payroll taxes, and VAT.
2. I think that the total revenue should be indexed in some way, and also restricted. For example, “revenues never to exceed 15% of GDP,” (The battle over income tax revenues for the last however many decades has been that GOP wants 18% and Dems want 24% of GDP.) (Note that I’m talking about the revenue generated, not the “sales tax” rate, which would be calculated to generate the target revenue amount.) The problem with such a rein, however, is who determines GDP and how it is calculated, because if the government issues those numbers, then our GDP will be manipulated and inflated beyond recognition. It must be tied to reality somehow without eliminating the possibility of genuine evolution. Perhaps some kind of compromise like an average of the GDP numbers as calculated by feds, states, academics, think tanks, and Wall Street. Don’t know if that would work, sounds complicated, but we’ve got to come up with a way to tie it to reality.
3. I find the parts of the Fair Tax proposal that are designed to make it palatable to leftists to be overly complicated and confusing and possibly unfair, even undermining the underlying premise of tax fairness. Things like “revenue neutral” and the way “poor” people are exempted make me wonder, “what’s wrong with a straight sales tax like we have in our state?” The poor pay gasoline taxes, for example. Yes, we exempt a few things like food (but not alcohol). But those are things, not people. Categorizing people is problematic: it’s one of the immoral parts of the graduated income tax.
4. The second-hand market for goods must never be impeded by taxes. If we ever make individuals responsible for paying sales tax on used goods they sell on, all that would do is create a cash-only black market and increase crime. I would want to see guarantees that individuals (not businesses) selling or swapping their stuff at garage sales or craft fairs or swap meets of flea markets or on eBay or FB or Craigslist or Goodreads or whatever are completely off the hook. This is so important that I think it might even need its own constitutional amendment.
(N.B. I didn’t watch any of the videos or read any of the links; I studied the Fair Tax a long time ago and these are ideas about it that I’ve thought of over the years. I don’t even remember if the FT proposal requires a new constitutional amendment over and above repealing the 16th, for example. Maybe some of my concerns have already been addressed in the current proposal.)
Neal Boortz and some congresscritter (update: John Linder, Georgia Republican) were hawking the Fair Tax very strongly almost 20 years ago now (update: bill introduced in 1999). Yes, I’ve heard of it. It seemed pretty reasonable — which means it will never happen.
Overview here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairTax#Legislative_overview_and_history
Sad but true.
Check out these videos.
http://fairtax.org/videos/how-the-fairtax-works
http://fairtax.org/videos/what-is-the-prebate
Looks awesome to me! We can always dream….