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bobby
Lv 4
bobby asked in Politics & GovernmentElections · 9 years ago

What are your thoughts on the Fair Tax?

Gary Johnson, if elected president, wants to implement the Fair Tax.

Features of the Fair Tax:

First off, the Fair Tax is a tax on consumption. Stuff you buy. That's all that is taxed. And not even all of that is taxed.

You keep your entire paycheck. $7.50 an hour means $7.50 an hour. You work 40 hours you get $350, not $294. Of course that's going off the minimum wage, Imagine keeping $15X40!

Allows retirees to keep entire pensions - again, pretty sweet, right?

Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities

Allows American products to compete fairly

Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy (no sneaky stuff from the govt)

Ensures Social Security and Medicare Funding (two programs that are going bankrupt by the way!)

Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation (again, no sneaky govt stuff)

Eliminates Corporate welfare

Reduces lobbying efforts in D.C. (no more buying votes and points of view)

Promotes a smaller, more efficient, more effective govt.

Collects taxes from illegals and the underground economy (every one consumes, so every one pays this tax)

Abolishes the IRS (who likes dealing with those guys!? I don't!)

So, what do YOU think, reader?

Update:

@ Right stuff. Certainly a legitimate concern. But most states already require taxes on consumed goods anyway. Where I am, the sales tax is 7%. However, there may be a concern of this being raised. So I guess what it comes down to is the difference between the percentage the sales taxes are raised and the amount of money NOT being cut out of your pay check every 2 weeks. Also, basic necessities are reimbursed. I'll have to confirm this, but that sounds to me like food/groceries, which is what most of us poor people spend our money on anyway.

Update 2:

@Max Hoopla. I'll have to look into that more. It sounds to me like, since we wont have to "do our taxes" anymore, the IRS will become obsolete. Why couldn't the money go directly into the community?

Update 3:

@Mary. You raise a legitimate concern. But two things.

1. Basic necessities will be reimbursed. Food/water. So people won't be turned away from buying these sorts of things. Since the steady flow of buying these things will be easily continued, why would prices go up?

2. With the money that won't be cut from people's paychecks, people may feel a little more at ease to buy luxury items, which would be taxed. And if people feel more at ease buying these items, won't demand go up and prices go down?

7 Answers

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  • Max Hoopla
    Lv 7
    9 years ago
    Favourite answer

    It shifts the burdern from those who can pay to those who can't. Graduated income tax was started for exactly that reason.

    It would not abolish the IRS. After all, who would collect "fair" tax? The Coast Guard?

    It would actually cost more to administer.

  • brenton s
    9 years ago

    "Ensures Social Security and Medicare Funding (two programs that are going bankrupt by the way!)"

    This is factually wrong. The current sponsor of the Fair Tax (HR 25) is Congressman Woodall. This is his position on the Fair Tax and Social Security. "To be clear, the FairTax is not a Social Security reform bill. It does nothing to change the income or the outgo of the current system." It leaves it just a FUBR'd as it is today - which is far from assured.

    The Congressman is factually wrong as well. He assumes that there will be no change to the outflow of the system. There will be millions of new beneficiaries. SS currently does not cover state and local workers - roughly 6 million. Once the employer does not have to pay to provide benefits to workers, they will ask to join the system.

    The Fair Tax will hopeless break Social Security, but you statement that it will ensure the system is certainly not consistent with what the Trustees of the system have said.

    Source(s): Representative Rob Woodall
  • ?
    Lv 6
    9 years ago

    It will help further destroy the economy, because people will reduce spending to save on taxes (plus the price of things will appear to jump 20% or more overnight).

    A "flat tax" is better, because it does not penalize people who spend, and does not penalize people for working harder to earn more.

  • ?
    Lv 6
    9 years ago

    I love it.

    Even the people who dodge a flat tax by claiming deductions would be taxed based on consumption.

  • Charles U. Farley
    Lv 6
    9 years ago

    Fair, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

  • Anonymous
    9 years ago

    I don't like it.

    Flat Tax or bust.

  • rightstuff
    Lv 7
    9 years ago

    sounds good but hurts low income people by taxing what they buy just my thoughts

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