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.
A blessing to last for generations
Lyon, France has an incredible history and was known as an economic powerhouse and center for wine and mercantile trade during its Roman occupation. Later, it was known as centers for both the silk and printing industries. In today’s time, it is known as the culinary capital of France and sits in the heart of France’s renowned Rhone Valley wine region. Let’s travel back in time to the 15th century to see what single, radical action Lyon took that still reverberates with lasting effects for generations of its inhabitants to this day.
By 1420, Lyon was 80 years into the Hundred Years’ War and suffering economic collapse and devastation. The crushing cumulative effects of royal tax burdens to fund the war left buyers and sellers empty-handed and disillusioned. The calamity and aftershocks of the Black Death decimated large portions of France’s labor and consumer base, and continental trade had drifted to more secure areas, notably Geneva, Switzerland.
On life support, what did Lyon do to revitalize itself? Did they raise taxes to fund the conscription of more troops to defend themselves? Did they raise taxes to fund the construction of better palaces and castles to project power? Did they hire more mercenaries for tax collection enforcement efforts to replenish their coffers?
You have undoubtedly surmised the answers to these rhetorical questions by now. What Charles VII did at the time was not complex or costly, but it was revolutionary. In 1420, Charles VII decreed that Lyon’s four international trading fairs each year would be completely tax free!
What was the result of this novel experiment?
International merchants came flooding into Lyon once the news spread. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Lyon transformed itself into one of the leading economic centers in France. The Kings of France were so impressed by Lyon’s successes that King Louis XI modeled other French cities after Lyon from 1451- 1483. Lyon’s geographic location was also important, with proximity to Italy, Germany, the low countries, Spain, Portugal and Flanders, which meant Lyon was able to import merchants from all over to help handle the economic explosion the tax relief instigated. Lyon’s tax-relief-fueled prosperity was so powerful that Lyon even became a considerable rival to Geneva, which at the time was the center for international trade.
Are there any lessons we can learn from Lyon’s 1420 experiment? It is not a complex equation that a counsel of the finest minds or economic think tanks must decipher. All you need is a simple understanding of what stimulates economic activity, tax relief! The FAIRtax, H.R. 25, is a simple, straightforward, and proven way to continue to fund our U.S. treasury at current levels, while eliminating the most economically-stifling tax of all, the income tax.
Leading economists, including those who have counselled President Trump, acknowledge that the economic prosperity that eliminating our U.S. income tax, capital gains taxes, gift taxes, and estate taxes would deliver is unprecedented. Imagine the U.S. as the world’s tax haven, with no personal or business income or payroll taxes at all. The effect is almost unimaginable.
In 1420, international letters took weeks and months to deliver and there was no internet or news outlets on demand. In today’s world, the economic prosperity and growth the U.S. would experience would be exponential and nearly immediate.
Think of the millions of legal immigrants we would need, the business production and manufacturing that would result, and the increases to our coffers that this stimulus would bring about. Also, think about the effect of no taxes on investments.
No investing or capital gains taxes on the appreciation and profits realized from multitude of new enterprises that spring up in the U.S. during this economic renaissance creates an even greater incentive for U.S. economic expansion and investment. Our only problem will be figuring out how to ensure that we have enough labor and supply chain resources for this expansion. That’s a problem that we gladly welcome.
We have only one question to ask ourselves. Do we want America to be thrown onto history’s scrap heap of places that “used to be” dynamic, growing, and prosperous? Or, alternatively, do we want to be a modern-day Lyon, France, and rejuvenate ourselves by eliminating the income tax, with the promise of prosperity for our children, our children’s children, and their children, and …?
Source: Economy | Lyon, The City of Charm (onlylyon203.wordpress.com/background/economy)
CONCLUSION
As Jade makes clear, taxes matter and countries have economically thrived or failed if their tax system encourages or discourages innovation or success.
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.