The FAIRtax vs. Income Tax (Continuity vs. Chaos)
Deep down something in our humanity strives for steadiness, stability, continuity and catharsis. Unfortunately, we humans get ourselves into messes so easily and we often end up with disorder, confusion, bedlam, and disarray. A simple examination of the FAIRtax, as our national system of taxation, reveals whether or not this proposed panacea lives up to these lofty but essential human needs. Would the FAIRtax bring chaos or continuity?
Would the FAIRtax create continuity in the U.S.?
The FAIRtax would:
- Eliminate 75,000 pages of tax law, detailed tax regulations, tax form instructions, and tax court case precedents.
*Effect- We’re responsible for only the FAIRtax Act, a little over 100 pages.
- Eliminate the need for individual, corporate, gift, estate and other tax returns.
*Effect- We will never have to report our income to the IRS. We would simply pay the FAIRtax at our retail checkout, be it on-line or at the cash register.
- Eliminate the IRS.
*Effect- We will never again be persecuted by a taxation system that completely subverts the bill of rights (e.g., due process, right to a trial by jury, free speech, self-incrimination, etc.).
- Eliminate the need to track all of your ancillary income and keep shoeboxes of receipts.
*Effect- Our anxiety and level of fear we currently endure would cease. Over 95% of all of our new tax system’s collections would be automatic with no incremental work, second guessing, processing or illegal evasion.
- Eliminate the payroll tax and all tax withholdings.
*Effect- We would keep our entire paycheck! The angst and apprehension associated with bringing home less than what we earn and having to wait a year for a refund of our own money would evaporate immediately.
- Eliminate an uncompetitive landscape for U.S. based companies competing abroad.
*Effect- U.S. companies would produce goods and services that would have anywhere from 10% to 25% of its historical costs (composed of embedded income and payroll taxes) immediately vanish from its cost buildup, making U.S. companies significantly more competitive on the world stage.
- Eliminate unfair discrimination against our working poor.
*Effect- The payroll tax is the most regressive portion of our current taxation system, and it would end under the FAIRtax. Working poor would no longer pay the government before they fed their family. The monthly prebate would ensure that all legal residents, including the working poor, would never have to pay the government before they can purchase the basic necessities of life.
- Eliminate 95% of our current $1 trillion of annual tax evasion.
*Effect- The convoluted nature of the income tax results in unprecedented confusion. Our treasury would no longer lose out on $1 trillion a year. Studies show that 95% of illegal evasion would be eliminated under the FAIRtax. The FAIRtax widens the tax collection base significantly including the underground criminal economy, organized crime, prostitution, people illegally residing in the U.S., etc., all of which would pay the FAIRtax as they consume retail goods (think food and rent) and services. Spending comes from borrowing, saving, income and theft while income only comes from income.
- Eliminate inconsistency in collections during economic cycles such as recessions.
*Effect- Studies show that U.S. personal consumption expenditures (“PCE”) was a steadier and more predictable metric than earned income over multiple decades. This means that during a recession when consumption and incomes fall, the PCE that FAIRtax collections will be based on, will act as a calming and steadying force relative to our current income tax.
This is just a beginning list of the effects the FAIRtax would have on our country, however even if brief, we can comfortably say, “Your honor, I rest my case.” We can see without question that the FAIRtax would usher in peace, calm, and an ease of complying with a tax system that we have never experienced in the U.S. This is a continuity, efficiency, simplicity, and fairness that we all are thirsting for. Switching gears for a moment, the anticipated doubling of the IRS workforce included within the Inflation Reduction Act, anticipated to become the law of the land in late August 2022, is expected to result in unprecedented and heightened harassment of hard working American men and women. Add this to the existing malaise of IRS regulations, uncertainty, discombobulation, disorder, confusion and chaos that is our current tax system, and it is questionable whether or not our country can handle much more.
No matter your faith, the Bible is a useful tool for instruction and training. As Theodore Roosevelt said, “A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.” Here are a few points on the matter of confusion:
- 1 Corinthians 14:33- “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, …”
- 2 Timothy 4:3-4- “A time will come when people will not listen to accurate teachings. Instead, they will follow their own desires and surround themselves with teachers who tell them what they want to hear. People will refuse to listen to the truth and turn to myths.”
- 2 Timothy 1:7- “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
The FAIRtax wins the title, hands down, for being effortless, easy, and without controversy, while our current income tax system drags us further and further into the bowls of $1 trillion annual illegal evasion, increased confusion, an increased fear of IRS persecution, and ultimately, destruction. What’s your choice?
WHAT CAN EACH OF US DO?
We can write letters and make calls to our elected representatives demanding that if the government really wants to eliminate the burden of filing income tax returns, they should enact the FAIRtax and do away with tax returns altogether.
The great 18th century Irish statesman Edmund Burke made a statement that applies in many ways,
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
Take back control! Help us PASS THE FAIRTAX!
The IRS will be gone and we will pay our taxes when we make purchases.
WE and not the Ruling Class and their minions in D.C. will decide how much federal tax we pay!
If you have friends who don’t know about the FAIRtax, send them to FAIRtax.org. Have them watch the white boards under “How It Works” and, if they agree, ask them to please join us.
Then contact your Members of Congress and the President and demand that Congress pass -the FAIRtax—the only fair tax.
Remember, if we don't continue to tell the truth and demand a change, then this quote from George Orwell's 1984 may foretell our children's future:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
Is it hopeless? When confronted with a seemingly impossible problem, remember the statement attributed to the author George Bernard Shaw who wrote, You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”
Isn’t it time for us to ask, “Why not?”