This week’s Chairman’s Report is written by Jade Walle. A practicing CPA has been on the American For Fair Taxation board of directors.
#1. April 1, 2025
FAIRtax: Finally, modernization! (694 words)
Many of us have heard that the IRS is working on updating their systems, modernizing their software, and any day now we can expect it to operate more efficiently and securely. If you’ve been around long enough, it probably seems like we’ve been hearing this refrain for some time now, year after year, and even decade after decade.
#1. April 1, 2025
FAIRtax: Finally, modernization! (694 words)
Many of us have heard that the IRS is working on updating their systems, modernizing their software, and any day now we can expect it to operate more efficiently and securely. If you’ve been around long enough, it probably seems like we’ve been hearing this refrain for some time now, year after year, and even decade after decade.
DOGE representative, Sam Corcos recently said that “…the IRS modernization project is currently 30 years behind schedule and $15 billion over budget. The IRS has some pretty legacy infrastructure...and the challenge has been how do we migrate that to a modern system?"
Mr. Corcos goes on noting, "We're now 35 years into this program. If you ask them now, it's five years away, and it's been five years away since 1990. It was supposed to be delivered in 1996, and it's still five years away.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent added "one of the biggest surprises for me is just seeing how these entrenched interests, they just keep constricting themselves around the power, around the money, around the systems, and nobody cares."
Every hard-working American taxpayer should be beyond frustrated and disgusted with such an antiquated, inefficient, broken tax system. What’s sad, is that despite Mr. Corcos and Mr. Bessent’s presumably good intentions, the system has grown so large and so unwieldy that any attempts to make it better end up being an exercise in futility- like rearranging the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic!
According to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, our income tax system inflicts an almost unimaginable burden on American taxpayers. Americans spend 6.5 billion hours preparing and filing their taxes each year. In addition, they spend over $414 billion in annual costs. That’s over and above their actual tax liability.
The Tax Foundation estimates this cost to be even higher, at $546 billion. In a 2021 Senate Finance Committee hearing, IRS commissioner, Charles Rettig noted we have a $1 trillion annual tax gap. What he means is that $1 trillion a year is owed but not collected thanks to illegal tax evasion.
There are over 80,000 pages of tax law, detailed tax code, and tax law interpretations that every taxpayer is responsible for adhering to. Furthermore, the vast majority of the 20 million or more people that reside in the U.S. illegally do not file a tax return and don’t pay any federal income tax. The list of grievances goes on much longer, but we see the picture being painted here.
As Debbie Downer as all this sounds fear not, because there is a solution, the FAIRtax! The FAIRtax is a 132-page bill that replaces those 80,000 pages referenced earlier. With the FAIRtax, there will be no more income tax returns for businesses or individuals, no capital gains tax, no AMT, and no gift or death taxes. We simply pay the FAIRtax when we make retail purchases of new goods and services. Individuals will have absolutely no tax reporting obligations whatsoever. Plus, only business that sell at the retail consumer level will have to collect and remit the FAIRtax, meaning over 90% of businesses will have no tax compliance costs at all.
Consider also that over 90% of all retail sales in America are made by just a few hundred retailers. Giants like Walmart and Amazon know they’re being watched and they’re not about to risk getting busted for helping people evade the FAIRtax. Keep the big boys honest, and there’s just very little room for fraud and evasion in the rest of the retail market. Under the FAIRtax, illegal evasion is expected to plummet to approximately $50 billion, an over 90% estimated decrease in the annual illegal evasion that we see with the income tax.
The systems needed to collect and administer the FAIRtax already exist. Retailers already collect sales taxes and states already receive sales tax remittances from the retailers. And unlike the IRS, these systems use more modern technologies and are much more trustworthy and efficient. With the FAIRtax, people residing in the U.S. illegally will finally pay their share of the U.S. federal tax burden, paying the FAIRtax as they consume. Furthermore, those residing here illegally are not eligible for the prebate, so the FAIRtax will provide a strong incentive for people to become legal citizens.
Of course, the grand finale is that the FAIRtax puts the IRS out of business.
Scott Bessent goes on to say that "We want people to feel satisfied that they are getting the service they deserve, that they're paying their fair share, no more, no less. And that it's done quickly, smartly and privately.”
Respectfully, Mr. Bessent, the time has come to move on and replace the Titanic with a truly sea-worthy vessel before it sinks and we all drown in the frigid and freezing waters of our income tax system. Please, bring on the FAIRtax before the income tax ship inevitably sinks!
CONCLUSION
Many of you have labored tirelessly for freedom from the federal income tax and the IRS. You deserve a great deal of credit for your efforts to educate the American people on the need to fund the American government in a way that is good for America and returns freedom to the American people.
It is imperative, though, that we don’t replace the current income tax and the IRS with an alternative system that can still be manipulated by the Ruling Elite. We must let Congress and the President know that the best way to replace the income tax and the IRS is with the FAIRtax.
Make no mistake about it. The FAIRtax is a grave threat to the Ruling Elites. It will strip them of their power and their ability to control us though the tax system. Their opposition to the FAIRtax will be fierce and unrelenting. And don’t think for an instant that they won’t use half-truths, deception and downright lies in their desperate attempt to hang on to their power.
However, with the support of this President, we can finally eliminate the income tax and the IRS!!!
Of course, the best course of action is to not only repeal the income tax and abolish the IRS but to repeal the 16th Amendment as well so no future administration can ever shackle the American people with an income tax again.
We must come together and ensure that real tax reform, the FAIRtax, is not subverted by the Elites in D.C.
This will take the diligent efforts of all of us. We need your financial assistance, and we need your grass roots assistance.
If you have contacts that will allow us to get more information to President Trump about the FAIRtax please let us know.
Please email us at info@fairtax.org and we will give you some options on how you can best help us.
At a minimum, please call your Congressional representative and ask if he or she supports the FAIRtax. If so, thank him/her for their support and suggest they become a cosponsor of HR-25 if they’re not one already. If not, ask why not. If your representative claims to be unfamiliar with the FAIRtax, offer to have someone come to their office and explain it to them.
Please go to this link to invest in AFFT and help us pass the FAIRtax. It’s an investment in your and your family’s future.
THE SOLUTION—PASS THE FAIRTAX!
Why would D.C. pass the FAIRtax and give up this almost unlimited source of donations? The only way that they will is if the rest of us demand it!
Isn’t it time to end this ludicrous tax collection system and the IRS?
HELP BRING ABOUT REAL TAX REFORM AND STOP FUTURE IRS ABUSES
By contributing (investing) $10.40 per month, you help provide a financial base to AFFT. If you can make larger contributions (investments), these will be used not for salaries, as we are all volunteers, but for the needed updates to our economic studies which will be vital for all future years.
Please go to this link to invest in AFFT and help us pass the FAIRtax. It’s an investment in your and your family’s future.
Mr. Corcos goes on noting, "We're now 35 years into this program. If you ask them now, it's five years away, and it's been five years away since 1990. It was supposed to be delivered in 1996, and it's still five years away.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent added "one of the biggest surprises for me is just seeing how these entrenched interests, they just keep constricting themselves around the power, around the money, around the systems, and nobody cares."
Every hard-working American taxpayer should be beyond frustrated and disgusted with such an antiquated, inefficient, broken tax system. What’s sad, is that despite Mr. Corcos and Mr. Bessent’s presumably good intentions, the system has grown so large and so unwieldy that any attempts to make it better end up being an exercise in futility- like rearranging the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic!
According to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, our income tax system inflicts an almost unimaginable burden on American taxpayers. Americans spend 6.5 billion hours preparing and filing their taxes each year. In addition, they spend over $414 billion in annual costs. That’s over and above their actual tax liability.
The Tax Foundation estimates this cost to be even higher, at $546 billion. In a 2021 Senate Finance Committee hearing, IRS commissioner, Charles Rettig noted we have a $1 trillion annual tax gap. What he means is that $1 trillion a year is owed but not collected thanks to illegal tax evasion.
There are over 80,000 pages of tax law, detailed tax code, and tax law interpretations that every taxpayer is responsible for adhering to. Furthermore, the vast majority of the 20 million or more people that reside in the U.S. illegally do not file a tax return and don’t pay any federal income tax. The list of grievances goes on much longer, but we see the picture being painted here.
As Debbie Downer as all this sounds fear not, because there is a solution, the FAIRtax! The FAIRtax is a 132-page bill that replaces those 80,000 pages referenced earlier. With the FAIRtax, there will be no more income tax returns for businesses or individuals, no capital gains tax, no AMT, and no gift or death taxes. We simply pay the FAIRtax when we make retail purchases of new goods and services. Individuals will have absolutely no tax reporting obligations whatsoever. Plus, only business that sell at the retail consumer level will have to collect and remit the FAIRtax, meaning over 90% of businesses will have no tax compliance costs at all.
Consider also that over 90% of all retail sales in America are made by just a few hundred retailers. Giants like Walmart and Amazon know they’re being watched and they’re not about to risk getting busted for helping people evade the FAIRtax. Keep the big boys honest, and there’s just very little room for fraud and evasion in the rest of the retail market. Under the FAIRtax, illegal evasion is expected to plummet to approximately $50 billion, an over 90% estimated decrease in the annual illegal evasion that we see with the income tax.
The systems needed to collect and administer the FAIRtax already exist. Retailers already collect sales taxes and states already receive sales tax remittances from the retailers. And unlike the IRS, these systems use more modern technologies and are much more trustworthy and efficient. With the FAIRtax, people residing in the U.S. illegally will finally pay their share of the U.S. federal tax burden, paying the FAIRtax as they consume. Furthermore, those residing here illegally are not eligible for the prebate, so the FAIRtax will provide a strong incentive for people to become legal citizens.
Of course, the grand finale is that the FAIRtax puts the IRS out of business.
Scott Bessent goes on to say that "We want people to feel satisfied that they are getting the service they deserve, that they're paying their fair share, no more, no less. And that it's done quickly, smartly and privately.”
Respectfully, Mr. Bessent, the time has come to move on and replace the Titanic with a truly sea-worthy vessel before it sinks and we all drown in the frigid and freezing waters of our income tax system. Please, bring on the FAIRtax before the income tax ship inevitably sinks!
CONCLUSION
Many of you have labored tirelessly for freedom from the federal income tax and the IRS. You deserve a great deal of credit for your efforts to educate the American people on the need to fund the American government in a way that is good for America and returns freedom to the American people.
It is imperative, though, that we don’t replace the current income tax and the IRS with an alternative system that can still be manipulated by the Ruling Elite. We must let Congress and the President know that the best way to replace the income tax and the IRS is with the FAIRtax.
Make no mistake about it. The FAIRtax is a grave threat to the Ruling Elites. It will strip them of their power and their ability to control us though the tax system. Their opposition to the FAIRtax will be fierce and unrelenting. And don’t think for an instant that they won’t use half-truths, deception and downright lies in their desperate attempt to hang on to their power.
However, with the support of this President, we can finally eliminate the income tax and the IRS!!!
Of course, the best course of action is to not only repeal the income tax and abolish the IRS but to repeal the 16th Amendment as well so no future administration can ever shackle the American people with an income tax again.
We must come together and ensure that real tax reform, the FAIRtax, is not subverted by the Elites in D.C.
This will take the diligent efforts of all of us. We need your financial assistance, and we need your grass roots assistance.
If you have contacts that will allow us to get more information to President Trump about the FAIRtax please let us know.
Please email us at info@fairtax.org and we will give you some options on how you can best help us.
At a minimum, please call your Congressional representative and ask if he or she supports the FAIRtax. If so, thank him/her for their support and suggest they become a cosponsor of HR-25 if they’re not one already. If not, ask why not. If your representative claims to be unfamiliar with the FAIRtax, offer to have someone come to their office and explain it to them.
Please go to this link to invest in AFFT and help us pass the FAIRtax. It’s an investment in your and your family’s future.
THE SOLUTION—PASS THE FAIRTAX!
Why would D.C. pass the FAIRtax and give up this almost unlimited source of donations? The only way that they will is if the rest of us demand it!
Isn’t it time to end this ludicrous tax collection system and the IRS?
HELP BRING ABOUT REAL TAX REFORM AND STOP FUTURE IRS ABUSES
By contributing (investing) $10.40 per month, you help provide a financial base to AFFT. If you can make larger contributions (investments), these will be used not for salaries, as we are all volunteers, but for the needed updates to our economic studies which will be vital for all future years.
Please go to this link to invest in AFFT and help us pass the FAIRtax. It’s an investment in your and your family’s future.