The Fair Tax: A Transparent, Efficient and Uncomplicated Tax System

There is no question that our nation’s tax system is in disarray. Our tax code, which is over 70,000 pages long, is one of the most complex in the world. Individuals and businesses spend more than 6.1 billion hours each year in an effort to comply with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which is equivalent to 3 million full-time workers each year. Economic growth is greatly hindered by the billions of dollars in economic losses we face each year as a result of tax compliance.

In addition to the burdens placed on taxpayers, the IRS continues to spin out of control, targeting individuals and organizations based on their political affiliations. Americans seeking help from the IRS to ensure compliance are often left without assistance--in 2015, just 37 percent of taxpayer calls during tax season actually reached a customer service representative.

With an obscenely complicated tax code and an IRS that is unwilling to help taxpayers adhere to the law, it might seem like this is the reality that we’re stuck with permanently.

But there is a better, simpler way.

Throughout my tenure in Congress, I have been a strong proponent of the Fair Tax. The Fair Tax abolishes the IRS and the federal income tax, and sets in place a national sales tax. By shifting to the Fair Tax, we will immediately see the positive effects of a transparent and uncomplicated tax system.

Our current tax structure inhibits working class families from climbing the economic ladder, as many never even see a significant portion of their paycheck. Under the Fair Tax, every individual is put squarely in control of their tax burden through their spending.  And unlike our current system, which places an unfair burden on low-income families, each legal resident household will receive an “advance refund” at the start of each month, so that purchases made up to the poverty level are tax-free.

Best yet, we get rid of the IRS and the complicated tax forms, audits, and bureaucracy that comes along with it. By eliminating the IRS, we will save billions of taxpayer dollars each year--in 2016 alone, the IRS maintained a massive operational budget of $11.2 billion.

And despite an $11.2 billion budget, the IRS still struggles to do its job properly. IRS oversight of tax credit programs remains minimal at best. Tax evasion is all too common a problem thanks to the IRS’s failure to properly investigate fraud. High-level IRS bureaucrats frequently abuse their powers, as we saw in 2013 when 426 conservative nonprofit organizations were unfairly targeted based on their values.

The best answer to rein in an out of control IRS is to eliminate the need for it all together, which is exactly what the Fair Tax does.  The Fair Tax accomplishes all the same revenue goals as our current system, but at a significantly lower cost to taxpayers and in a much more efficient way.

As a CPA and fiscal conservative, I am proud to support a tax system that actually works for our taxpayers, instead of the current system that only works for government bureaucrats. The Fair Tax is the right answer to fixing our nation’s broken tax system. 
 
Congressman Mike Conaway represents Texas’ 11th congressional district, including the cities of Midland, Odessa and San Angelo.  He is chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, and also serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.  He is a deputy Republican whip, a position he has held since the 112th Congress.  He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting from Texas A & M University-Commerce, and is a CPA.  After serving in the Army at Fort Hood, he returned to the Permian Basin with Price Waterhouse and settled in Midland, later working with George W. Bush as the chief financial officer for Bush Exploration.