Fair Tax

Thank you, Phil. You have opened the door for me to express my contempt for the alledged "Fair Tax".

What a great idea it would be to invert the U.S. taxation system?

People with incomes below current minimum tax levels would pay additional taxes without additional income. High income taxpayers would be paying a fraction of the taxes they currently pay. Plus they could enjoy investments with zero capital gains taxes.

Without the deduction for mortgage interest, housing values would drop decreasing the net worth of the middle class.

Just think about paying additional taxes on your retirement savings.

We live in a consumption-based society. So a consumption tax would would slow down the economic engine of our society and that would increase both unemployment and interest rates. We could go back to the days of 14% interest rates!! Dick

The short ``cons'' argument is that you can't move the point of taxation to later in the earn-spend cycle without taxing somebody's savings twice (once as earned, under the old income tax ; and then later again as spent, under the new fair tax). So it amounts to instantly confiscating (say) 25% of your savings, for people with (cash or equivalent) savings, when it's imposed. That's a heavy political headwind against it.

-- snipped-for-privacy@mindspring.com

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

C'mon Phil, give the Moderator a break. There is already an ongoing discussion of the Flat tax on misc.taxes.unmoderated with 397 responses (and growing!). If you want to "discuss" the pros and cons of the proposal take it there. Moderator: Thank you for your consideration, but I haven't even read 'nitwit central' in a few years.

"Dick Adams" wrote

On my CD's?

Yee Haw......

-- Paul A. Thomas, CPA Athens, Georgia

Moderator: This just proves my point that the wealthy support consumption taxation.

Maybe someone can recall the details of the consumption tax that caused high unemployment in the yacht industry.

As an optimist, I should be looking at the bright side of the Fair Tax. It could plant seeds for the rebirth of the Smuggling and Moonshine industries and a resurgence of organized crime. Best idea since Prohibition.

OTOH to avoid this 30% federal sales tax on the the retail price of goods and services, people could start growing their own crops, raising their own animals, trapping rabbits, and poaching deer in residential neighborhoods. It would be a rebirth of the self-reliant way of American life ala 1807 or a 200 year setback.

Since income would not be tax, we could also observe a massive expansion of the barter system with bathtub gin being used in lieu of currency.

Who is supporting this "return to yesteryear" tax? It's the National Taxpayers Union founded by the author of "The Soveriegn Individual". Does Quasimodo ring a bell?

"Starting next year, yachts have 30% sales tax." Yacht sales peaked that year, then hit 0 when the tax went into effect, and stayed there. Seth

"Dick Adams" wrote

Or.....they could just buy things for their business....as supposedly business purchases are exempt from the 30% tax.

Naaaaa.....people will still want money.

What would happen though, is a resurgence of personal financial statements, prepared and/or audited by CPA's for loans of all types.

Nothing so sinister......just the Dems.

-- Paul A. Thomas, CPA Athens, Georgia

ZERO? I seriously doubt that. For example, the Viking Yacht Co. reported that its sales fell 84 percent over two years to $16 million, which is somewhat more than zero.

Also, the luxury tax was TEN percent on new boats costing more than $100,000, _not_ 30 percent.

-- D.F. Manno | snipped-for-privacy@mail.com

snipped-for-privacy@panix.com (Seth) posted:

Everyone who has ever owned a boat knows the wisdom of the observation that they simply bought a "hole in the water -- down which money flows." Getting back to the FairTax, Phil Marti asked if there had been a bill introduced in Congress. The answer is, "Yes, as there has been for the last several Congressional sessions." This plan has more involved, than a simple shift to a sales tax. Cong. Lindner of GA and radio commentator Neal Boortz co-wrote a high-selling book on the subject, published last year, I believe. Anyone interested or curious can find info at

In my Post which went up Monday, August 6, I offered a link for more info on the FairTax. Apparently, that link has been converted into a commercial site, with sponsored links to Amazon.com, etc. Mea culpa. Here's a new site URL, for "FairTaxGroups" -- which offers a clickable link to obtain a "Brief Summary of the FairTax plan" at no charge:

My fear is that a national sales tax would be "phased in" rather than a radical full replacement advocated by the Fair Tax people.

Then it would just be another tax in an already busy tax system.