The Chairman’s Report October 1, 2021

Today’s Chairman’s Report is written by Jade Walle.  Jade is a partner of a CPA firm and is on the board of Americans For Fair Taxation.  Jade explains why the FAIRtax will enable Americans to accomplish even more.

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AMERICANS ARE GREAT AT WHAT THEY DO

Often it seems that when we connect with family, friends, loved ones and colleagues, some of the most negative, gut wrenching stories we hear are how issues with business, university, regulatory and other compliance regimes have inhibited, curtailed, stymied, or otherwise caused severe damage to an employment, business, entrepreneurial or other types of endeavors that we and our loved ones have pursued.

It is undoubtedly true that our nation’s income and payroll tax regime has heavily contributed to this unfortunate reality that we have all become much too accustomed to.  Unfortunately, it looks like it’s only going to keep getting worse with each piece of potential legislation that our country’s leaders attempt to pass into law.

It’s an important historical fact that our country was created to be one of the most business-friendly entities ever established in all of the world’s history.  There were no federal income taxes to be concerned with.  In fact, the Founding Fathers specifically forbade direct taxation in the original Constitution.  There was no bureaucratic red tape to overcome as it relates to a multitude of endless regulations.  Americans were free to blaze their own trails, free of hinderance by an overreaching and overbearing government or throne, restrained only by their God-given abilities, potential, savvy, and business acumen.

While it is common to complain of government overreach and an oppressive income and payroll tax system, it is noteworthy to bring forward a well-researched, studied and feasible plan to reverse the cancer that is our current income tax system.  Upon enactment of the FAIRtax, a significant component of our bloated and out of touch federal government will single-handedly end, putting the power to choose and once again blaze one’s own trail back into the hands of our amazing American citizens.

As a CPA, I have seen firsthand how many companies feel handcuffed or at the very least, extremely hindered, as it relates to potential business transactions, such as mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, common control transactions, etc.  It’s not an exaggeration to point out that a good number of potential acquisitions, divestitures, and other arrangements have been not only delayed, but outright abandoned due entirely to our punitive and cumbersome income tax system.  These companies just didn’t want to deal with the potential negative income tax consequences of such transactions that otherwise would have been positive for the companies’ owners, employees, and investors.

In other words, the company, its employees, investors, customers, and the country as a whole missed out on a more streamlined company that would have realized greater economies of scale.  The company that never happened would have brought greater value to all stakeholders, such as lower costs, more research and development, higher 401-K and IRA valuations, greater employee wages or employee head count growth, to name just a few of the multitude of ancillary benefits foregone.

The key message is that Americans are great at what they do.  We’re entrepreneurial, creative, innovative, empathetic, kind, generous and relentlessly hard working.  This unique set of cultural traits that Americans engender deserve a special type of governmental construct.  If Americans were  generally apathetic, disinterested, lacking talent and generally devoid of healthy ambition, perhaps a controlling central government would be needed to ensure an appropriate division of labor, resources, and means of production.

However, given our aforementioned traits, at the risk of sounding arrogant, we as Americans deserve the very best type of government.  Of course, no government is perfect and there are many aspects of our U.S. federal government that could be criticized.  Our antiquated and incomprehensible income/payroll tax system is clearly one of those things.  Getting rid of it would single handedly bring more freedom, progress and energy back into our American workers and entrepreneurs than nearly anything else, in one fell swoop.

If Americans are great at what they do, which I wholeheartedly believe to be the case, and if Americans, through their ingenuity, astuteness, creativity, ambition, empathy, and love have time and time again proven their ability to overcome, solve problems and generally make the world a better place through its products and services, can’t we at least get the government out of their way?

Can’t we at least provide a business climate and environment that is conducive to allowing Americans to be their best, uninhibited?  To be clear, getting the government out of the way of its best and brightest doesn’t mean abandoning all regulation.  We just have to be sure that those regulations are fair to the consumer, good for the environment, good for national security, etc.

What it does mean is that to the greatest degree possible, government bureaucrats and regulators would not be involved in the day-to-day world of American companies and businesses.  The FAIRtax makes this seemingly unimaginable description of a fair American business paradigm, an actual reality!

CONCLUSION

All of us can understand the points that Jade is making.

We often ask the question—why don’t our Members of Congress see this plain truth?

The answer is that they do, but their strings are being pulled not by us but by the Ruling Class.  The Ruling Class is only looking to help themselves and people who pay them.

To them, we are just little people who only have to be tolerated, but we have a lot more leverage than most people realize.   We the people have to power to demand that our representatives do what is right or face getting thrown out of office.
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.”

If you want to prevent the IRS from being further weaponized to punish those of us who may object to the D.C. opinions and dictates of what is good for us, then help us PASS THE FAIRTAX!

The IRS will be gone and we will pay our taxes when we make purchases.  WE and not D.C. Elites 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?”

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