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The Fair Tax
By Jan Larson (08/29/05)
Last week I attended a book signing by radio talk show host, Neal Boortz. Boortz is on tour promoting The FairTax Book [1], co-authored by Rep. John Linder (R-GA). As of this writing, The FairTax Book has been number one on the New York Times bestseller list for two consecutive weeks.
The book describes the origins of the federal income tax, the insidious nature of tax withholding, corporate and payroll taxes and how politicians over the years have attempted to make the collection of taxes from working Americans as painless as possible in order to make more taxation agreeable to the masses.
The problem (for the politicians) is that many Americans including those reading this and especially those that have read Boortz and Linder’s book, are coming to realize that far from being painless, the U. S. tax code is a never-ending torture treatment.
Some interesting (and sickening) facts [2]:
· IRS rules and regulations comprise more than 60,000 pages.
· Since the tax “simplification” legislation of 1986, there have been over 10,000 revisions to the tax code.
· It is estimated that small businesses spend $724 in tax compliance for every $100 in income taxes paid to the government.
· Businesses, non-profits and individuals spent an estimated 5.8 billion hours on tax compliance in 2002 – the equivalent of the combined life spans of 8700 Americans or the 40 hour per week labor of 2,770,000 people.
· Despite the massive drain on the economy for tax compliance, the IRS reported the “tax gap” or uncollected tax stands at 355 billion dollars.
If the sheer insanity of the above weren’t enough reason to scrap the federal tax code, the adverse economic ramifications of the current tax system provide ample reason to put the tax code out of its misery.
While most people understand the nature of income taxes and withholding (they at least know what it means to get a tax refund) many do not fully appreciate the effect of corporate taxes and payroll taxes on their lives.
Corporations are not tax payers, they are merely tax collectors. Every person that buys anything from a loaf of bread to a car wash is paying the taxes embedded in that loaf of bread or car wash. These taxes are invisible, just the way the politicians want them, but are nonetheless very real – ultimately paid by you, the consumer, not the company that makes the bread or employs the person that scrubs your car.
Embedded in the price paid for the bread are the costs incurred at every step of production, distribution and marketing. Those costs include the federal taxes paid by everyone that had a hand in putting that loaf on your table: the seed supplier, the farmer, those that provide equipment and supplies to the farmer, the trucker, the baker, the distributor and the grocer.
These embedded taxes are estimated to average 22 percent of the final retail cost of goods and services. In other words, when you buy a ten-dollar t-shirt, $2.20 of that is going to pay federal taxes. And you thought you were done paying taxes on April 15?
It isn’t just that Americans are paying too much in these “stealth” taxes, but corporate and payroll taxes provide major incentives for multi-national corporations to locate offshore in “tax friendly” countries, taking American jobs with them. In addition, American products bear the burden of these embedded taxes even when sold overseas. Foreign companies doing business in the United States do not bear the same burden.
When the Americans for Fair Taxation was founded and the idea for the FairTax, a national sales tax that would replace the income, payroll, estate and gift taxes was formulated, many inside and outside of Washington scoffed at the idea that the U. S. tax code could ever be so drastically reformed. They aren’t scoffing anymore.
The FairTax is rapidly gaining momentum for the simple reasons that it is fair to all Americans, it would provide for economic growth unlike anything seen before and, possibly most importantly of all, it eliminates the backroom dealing between legislators selling tax favors and the special interest lobbyists that pay for them.
The FairTax meets the President’s goal of tax reform that is “pro-growth, simple, easy to understand and fair to all.”
The FairTax would make the United States the preferred location for companies from around the world. Those American companies that have moved operations elsewhere would be begging to come home. The FairTax puts 100% of workers’ wages in their pocket every payday. The FairTax also ensures that the poor are not saddled with federal taxes on the purchase of the necessities of life.
The FairTax is not without opponents. Politicians, lawyers, million dollar lobbyists and anyone else that benefits from the complexity and obfuscation offered by the current U. S. tax code will not give up without a fight. They will smear the FairTax proposal with distortions and lies. Boortz and Linder address a number of those lies.
This is a fight that can be won, but it won’t be won without pressure from everyday Americans that are sick and tired of the IRS and the underhanded way that the government confiscates the earnings of working people while at the same time stifling economic growth.
The FairTax effort is not about the rich or poor, liberal or conservative. It is about getting the government out of your pocket and out of your business. The FairTax isn’t fantasy; it is very real. Rep. Linder introduced H. R. 25, the FairTax Bill, in the House and there is a companion bill, S. 25, currently before the Senate.
Read The FairTax Book and visit the Americans for Fair Taxation website to learn about the FairTax, then take action. Call, or better yet, write your Senators and Representative and tell them you support the FairTax and that to earn your vote the next time they come up for election, they must get on board as a co-sponsor of the FairTax.
[1] Available at the Americans for Fair Taxation website, http://www.fairtax.org .
[2] All figures cited are taken from The FairTax Book.
Copyright: (c) 2005 Jan A. Larson All rights reserved.
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Jan A. Larson is currently employed in private industry in Texas. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Nebraska, a Master of Science degree from the University of Kansas and an MBA from Colorado State University.
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