Saying it in twenty seconds
Have you ever thought there is so much good about the FAIRtax that, when someone asks you about it, you are tongue-tied because you don’t know where to begin? Imagine getting a question about the FAIRtax while riding in an elevator, and you have twenty seconds before the door opens. What will your “elevator speech” be? Our FAIRtax volunteer, author, compensated public speaker, and featured guest on many radio programs, John Gaver, has developed a series of training videos to help you with that problem.
John emphasizes that it is important to answer each question quickly, concisely, and accurately. We begin with the most common question, “What is the FAIRtax?” John has two standard responses depending on his audience. One is seventeen seconds; the other is eighteen. I happen to like the second response. You can view the responses on this video by copying and pasting this link into your URL:
https://youtu.be/RmdjVlWqH5k
The next question is, “How will the FAIRtax help me?” The same video lists thirteen points from which you can pick and choose.
The next video addresses questions that come from flat-tax advocates and others, such as “Won’t we still need an IRS?” The question may come more in the form of a statement rather than a question. These inquirers engage in a technique John calls projection, i.e., when a debater falsely projects the flaws of their own argument onto the argument of others, hoping that the other debater will not know how to deflect their projection. Here is the video:
https://youtu.be/F93mj9E1N1U
The response is elegant without mentioning the flat tax. If time and preparation permit, the video shows two visuals, the flow of the tax and the reverse flow of the audits. The second visual drives home that there is no audit of consumers with the FAIRtax.
Some flat tax advocates ask a rhetorical question with a premise that is false on its face. The question might be, “Why don’t we eliminate the IRS with a flat tax and fill out our returns on a postcard? The premise of that question is preposterous, and the video gives an elegant nineteen-second response explaining why.
Have a look at the second video for two more flat-tax whoppers and suggested responses. We know that if people would report all their income under a flat tax who did not report all their income under today’s income tax, an audit would be sure to follow. For that reason, people would continue to under-report income even if we had a flat tax.
The third video helps you to handle the criticism that sales taxes, including the FAIRtax, are regressive. The response lasts nineteen seconds. The video also answers the criticism that the FAIRtax is a tax cut for the rich:
https://youtu.be/LW9DvOeykoQ
And the fourth video tackles the criticism that the FAIRtax, at 23%, will lead to massive tax evasion and black markets:
https://youtu.be/_gtnN5XUOBY
John provides you with a graphic that will help you remember the answer. The graphic points out that ten percent of retailers account for ninety percent of retail sales. These retailers have point-of-sale inventory systems that make it virtually impossible to evade the FAIRtax, leaving only ten percent of retail sales subject to evasion. Compare those numbers to today’s income tax, where close to 50% of federal revenue comes from individual income tax filers.
If you want the link to this video series separately from this issue of Grassroots Corner, grab a copy of this link and store it in a place you will remember.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaVmATQTy0Ij9RFMPhhdKYDGGzR8GeYR0
The playlist is available to the public but is unlisted and will not appear on a search.
You may want to get John’s book, “The Rich Don’t Pay, Or Do They? – Who really pays income tax? Why is this problematic? and How do we deal with it?” The publisher is Allegiance Books, and the book is available on Amazon and other sources. John has another book coming, which will probably be out when this Grassroots Corner appears: “The Tax Deception.” He is looking for someone to write the forward.
John emphasizes that it is important to answer each question quickly, concisely, and accurately. We begin with the most common question, “What is the FAIRtax?” John has two standard responses depending on his audience. One is seventeen seconds; the other is eighteen. I happen to like the second response. You can view the responses on this video by copying and pasting this link into your URL:
https://youtu.be/RmdjVlWqH5k
The next question is, “How will the FAIRtax help me?” The same video lists thirteen points from which you can pick and choose.
The next video addresses questions that come from flat-tax advocates and others, such as “Won’t we still need an IRS?” The question may come more in the form of a statement rather than a question. These inquirers engage in a technique John calls projection, i.e., when a debater falsely projects the flaws of their own argument onto the argument of others, hoping that the other debater will not know how to deflect their projection. Here is the video:
https://youtu.be/F93mj9E1N1U
The response is elegant without mentioning the flat tax. If time and preparation permit, the video shows two visuals, the flow of the tax and the reverse flow of the audits. The second visual drives home that there is no audit of consumers with the FAIRtax.
Some flat tax advocates ask a rhetorical question with a premise that is false on its face. The question might be, “Why don’t we eliminate the IRS with a flat tax and fill out our returns on a postcard? The premise of that question is preposterous, and the video gives an elegant nineteen-second response explaining why.
Have a look at the second video for two more flat-tax whoppers and suggested responses. We know that if people would report all their income under a flat tax who did not report all their income under today’s income tax, an audit would be sure to follow. For that reason, people would continue to under-report income even if we had a flat tax.
The third video helps you to handle the criticism that sales taxes, including the FAIRtax, are regressive. The response lasts nineteen seconds. The video also answers the criticism that the FAIRtax is a tax cut for the rich:
https://youtu.be/LW9DvOeykoQ
And the fourth video tackles the criticism that the FAIRtax, at 23%, will lead to massive tax evasion and black markets:
https://youtu.be/_gtnN5XUOBY
John provides you with a graphic that will help you remember the answer. The graphic points out that ten percent of retailers account for ninety percent of retail sales. These retailers have point-of-sale inventory systems that make it virtually impossible to evade the FAIRtax, leaving only ten percent of retail sales subject to evasion. Compare those numbers to today’s income tax, where close to 50% of federal revenue comes from individual income tax filers.
If you want the link to this video series separately from this issue of Grassroots Corner, grab a copy of this link and store it in a place you will remember.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaVmATQTy0Ij9RFMPhhdKYDGGzR8GeYR0
The playlist is available to the public but is unlisted and will not appear on a search.
You may want to get John’s book, “The Rich Don’t Pay, Or Do They? – Who really pays income tax? Why is this problematic? and How do we deal with it?” The publisher is Allegiance Books, and the book is available on Amazon and other sources. John has another book coming, which will probably be out when this Grassroots Corner appears: “The Tax Deception.” He is looking for someone to write the forward.
I would love to hear about your experience fielding questions about the FAIRtax.
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CALL FOR PICTURES AND WRITEUPS
We need more of you to send in pictures and news. If you have something to share, please send your material to me, jim.bennett@fairtax.org, (908) 578-4975, or fax (908) 598-2888. When others see your activity, they are inspired, and the process snowballs. When the process snowballs, Congress Members, Senators, and even the President start to listen.
CALL FOR PICTURES AND WRITEUPS
We need more of you to send in pictures and news. If you have something to share, please send your material to me, jim.bennett@fairtax.org, (908) 578-4975, or fax (908) 598-2888. When others see your activity, they are inspired, and the process snowballs. When the process snowballs, Congress Members, Senators, and even the President start to listen.
Jim Bennett
AFFT Grassroots Coordinator & Secretary🇺🇸 Call For Pictures & WriteUps - When others see your activity, they are inspired, the process snowballs and Representatives, Senators and, yes, even the President start to listen to you and me. Please send your material to me at Jim.Bennett@FAIRtax.org.
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