This week’s Chairman’s Report is written by Jade Walle. Vice president of Ur-Energy Inc., a CPA and a member of the Americans For Fair Taxation board of directors.
The Worst Kind of Taxes
This year, Wyoming legislators are considering the elimination of all residential property taxes with their House Bill 118. When accompanied by Wyoming’s 1974 constitutional prohibition on state income tax, Wyoming could become the first U.S. state to completely eliminate both state income tax and state residential property taxes.
Interestingly, according to a RocketMiner.com June 12, 2026 article, “Lawmakers revive proposal to remove Wyoming property taxes,” recent efforts to provide relief to Wyoming residents on increasing property tax assessments has been discombobulated at best. The article highlights,
“The [June 8, 2026] meeting opened with a look at the effectiveness of the relief measures already passed by the Wyoming Legislature. Since 2023, lawmakers have implemented a 4% cap on year-to-year assessment increases, a 25% homeowner property tax exemption and a 50% exemption for long-term residents over the age of 65. However, testimony from state revenue officials and county assessors said that the system can be so complex that many of the citizens it was designed to help are being left behind. Ken Guille of the Wyoming Department of Revenue testified that only about 44% to 46% of eligible Wyoming homeowners actually received the 25% exemption during its first year of application.”
However well-intentioned the “relief” measures have been over the past three years, we can never forget that U.S. citizens, whether they’re working or retired, don’t suffer governmental and tax-related burdens well. We need things simple, clear, concise, and with as few moving parts as humanly possible. The FAIRtax, H.R. 25, does exactly this at the federal level.
The Wyoming proposal would compensate for the lost residential property tax revenue primarily with a 2% increase in the state sales and use tax rate, where citizens would have a choice of how and when they paid their taxes.
Wyoming’s Joint Revenue Committee will reconvene in August to review the specific language of several draft bills, including a redrafted constitutional amendment that would set the residential property tax assessment rate to zero, contingent on a corresponding state sales tax increase. It will be exciting to see if Wyoming legislators and ultimately the people both recognize and seize this unique opportunity to capture the first-mover advantage that a state free of both income and property taxes would represent.
Despite the usual refrain from some lawmakers that local services would suffer irreparable harm without these property taxes, the conclusions are this.
- Simple is better, and a single state sales tax is the most effective and simple way to collect the same amount of state tax receipts.
- We are psychologically predisposed to abhor taxes that are personal to our income and property. One of Adam Smith’s primary contentions was that civil government is instituted primarily for the security of property. Property taxes are a de-facto seizure of our property, which violates the principle that our property and property rights are essential to liberty. Income taxes seize the very source of most any property we will ever acquire. Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, wrote that “The property which every man has in his own labor, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable.”
- What Mr. Smith was saying is that the fruits of our labor, aka “income,” are sacrosanct, and should not be infringed upon. A topic for a future discussion will be the effect of the type of tax we pay on the level of illegal evasion we endure.
We often like to quote Abraham Lincoln, and we could all likely recognize two or three of his most famous quotes instantaneously. However, we will bring today’s article to a close with one of President Lincoln’s lesser-known quotes that highlight how important it is for our country and states to respect an individual’s property.
“Property is the fruit of labor… property is desirable… is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.”
CONCLUSION
As Jade makes clear, the FAIRtax Act (H.R. 25) is more than just a proposal for a retail sales tax; it is a fundamental restructuring of the federal fiscal structure and makes our labor and our earnings “sacrosanct”.
Unlike other excise taxes which normally are applied to specific products and in different percentage amounts, the FAIRtax applies a 23% rate to all new retail products and retail services.
THE FAIRTAX IS THE ANSWER.
The FAIRtax is a national retail sales tax on new retail goods and retail services which provides a family credit so that all purchases up to the poverty level for each family are not taxed. There is no withholding from your paycheck, and YOU NEVER HAVE TO FILE A TAX RETURN TELLING THE GOVERNMENT HOW MUCH YOU EARNED AND HOW MUCH YOU SPENT, AND YOU’LL NEVER BE HARASSED BY THE IRS EVER AGAIN.
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.
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.