The Grassroots Corner April 28th, 2025

        This week’s Grassroots Corner comes from South Dakota FAIRtax supporter Mary Cichanowski. Mary writes:

        I am a retired Enrolled Agent. I have seen the tax code get worse and worse over the last 20 years. I know the horror of audits. I moved from Minnesota to South Dakota in 2023. In 2020, the Covid Relief bills pushed me over the edge, as in the middle of tax season we had to drop everything and deal with what Congress put out there. I spent two weeks taking emergency webinars, dealing with my clients solely on where's their rebates, why isn't the IRS website working, etc.

        Here in South Dakota, we do not have a state income tax. However, many people (cash buyers) have relocated here from other highly taxed states, driving the valuations of property up, way up. There is an uproar from owner occupied property owners worried about being taxed out of their homes. There is legislation in session now trying to address the increases in property tax. One proposal is to increase the sales tax rate (from 4.2% to 5%) and offer that as credits on the owner occupied real estate bills, a step in the right direction.

        I asked my friend David Boone (Editor’s note: our FAIRtax Leader in Minnesota) how I could get pending state bill language, and he put me in touch with Jim Duffy who sent me the GA FairTax bill, as my State Senator had requested it. I have provided that language to her and to my State Representative as an alternative to the state sales tax and property tax. I believe they are intrigued by the bill, especially the Prebate idea. Key points I have offered is that property tax is the only form of taxation on unrealized gains. Even the I.R.C. Section 121 offers exclusions from income for gains on the sale of homes. The other point I have raised, is why do we need more than one form of taxation? I tell them South Dakota could be a leader among our states with this legislation.

        Mary A. Cichanowski, Enrolled Agent
        National Tax Practice Institute Fellow®

        We thank Mary for stepping up and contacting her state legislator in South Dakota about a state-level FAIRtax. If we can get a true state-level FAIRtax passed in one state and show success, there will be pressure on other states and then upward pressure on the federal government to pass the FAIRtax. I put Mary in touch with Rob Rohrbough, who is leading a similar effort in the neighboring state of Nebraska. Rob’s email is epicconsumptiontax@gmail.com. Rob, Jim Duffie in Georgia, and Chuck Bailey in Alabama are leading efforts there to bring the FAIRtax to their states.

        If you are working on your state legislators on a state-level FAIRtax, or if you are asking them to have your state legislature endorse the national FAIRtax, I would love to share it here on Grassroots Corner.

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