How can anyone think the Fair Tax proposal is fair, or even decent?

Question

Discuss the following flaws:

The implementation of a national sales tax means retaxed already taxed dollars. So, if I have been investing my after tax dollars for the last 25 years, as soon as a national sales tax is incorporated I am going to have to pay tax all over again?

A prebate? This will only cause more people to be dependent on receiving money from the government. Yikes!

There are many other flaws, but these 2 seem the mos glaring. I know there are benefits, but don't tell me any of those benefits out weight the flaw of being taxed twice! Let's hear it pro fair tax people, how do you address the flaws?

Mislabeled, perhaps you need to research the actual proposal. The prebate proposes to send a check to every American for the same amount. It is nothing like what you describe...and it IS a horrendous idea.

As far as it not affecting as many people as I am suggesting, I assume you are referring to being double taxed? Well, it doesn't take too much thought to consider all the money you have used after having paid income tax for nay investment or savings is going to be taxed again. That affects everyone who has ever invested anything...so that leaves out the few who live paycheck to paycheck and have no money whatsoever. So yes, it indeed affects nearly everyone.

Also, conside those already retired living off their investments...now they pay double tax on 100% of their income being that is all has been taxed.

Fair it, the fair tax is a fraud.

These answers are going from bad to worse. Jim R, you are suggestion that because a system like Social Security is ridden with problems means incorporating another system with problems is fair? What kind of ridiculous logic is that?

You think the current tax system is a mess (which I would agree) but think a system that has you paying double the current amount is intelligent?

You think the best answer is to suggest never buying anything again and never paying any more taxes? Brilliant! Why not just stop making money and achieve the same result now. What a terrible response. No offense, but gimme a break.

Are there going to actually be any intelligent responses with real possible solutions to address the flaws, or more unintelligent propaganda one liners like there has been so far?

In regards to already being double taxed, this is comparing apples to oranges. I assume you are referring to being taxed on income and then taxed because we buy products with embedded taxes...but this overlooks the fact that the NST proposes to compensate for BOTH existing income taxes and corporate taxes. Thus, the new NST is in fact making you pay for the equivalent of current income AND corporate taxed. So now matter how you spin the semantics, the fact is it is MORE taxes in addition to those we have already pain on those pretaxed dollars. On new earned income, it merely represents the same, and had the NST been incorporated since the beginning, then this would not be an issue at all. But as I said, its a MAJOR implementation issue. Being taxed again on already taxed dollars is perhaps one of the worst potential flaws you could think of.

fbuffalo01, you seem to confuse propaganda and common sense. I merely presented the wholes in the logic used by the proponents of the NST and asked to hear what solutions those people would offer, not one liners that say the obvious flaws do not exist. Thanks for producing the least impactful answer though, I am sure you add more value in other parts of you life...at least one would hope.

Answer 1

I'm in favor of tax simplification, but not abandoning our current program.

In the end, we'd either go more socialist (YUCK) or have something similar to what we have now in the end. No matter what they change it to, someone will complain and we'll end up with some of the same exemptions again.

So why waste the money?

Answer 2

Simple. Yes you may get doubledipped on your savings but how is that different from the current death taxes on estates? How is that different from me not getting social security after paying all this time when it runs out before I hit retirement age? How is that different than my tax dollars going to support the EIC, welfare, or some other government subsidy instead of coming back to my pocket where they belong? It's not..

In every system someone gets screwed. That's just the way it is. The big problem is that right now, pretty much everyone is getting screwed. I get paid every two weeks and the amount withheld from each check for federal/state/local taxes averages over $400. Thats close to $1K a month/12K a year in taxes I pay not counting any sales tax. What makes it even worse is that at the end of the year it costs me another $12-1500 to have my accountant try to get as much of it back as possible from the IRS.

With the fair tax if I don't spend my money, I don't pay any taxes.

The fair tax isn't perfect but it's a hell of a lot better than the system we have now.

Answer 3

Under the current system, you are double taxed quit regularly. No one ever said there was a fair way to change from on system to another, just that the 'Fair Tax' would be more fair than the current system.

Molly: if you think anything short of scraping the current system qualifies as simplification, try reading the tax code. The last time Congress passed a 'Tax Simplification Act', the IRS estimates of the time required to file your taxes went UP 20%.

Answer 4

I was going to give you an intelligent answer until you started talking about the propaganda one liners. You are not going to believe anything anyone says. I have read the entire proposal and some of what people are saying is accurate. You have also used propaganda, by the way.

Answer 5

I think that whenever you withdraw post-tax dollars, you keep a record and your receipts for the nat-tax purchases and apply for a refund similar to when taking a trip to Canada and applying for a refund of the taxes you paid there when you return to the US. Done it. Painless.

Be aware, however, that your equity was never taxed and you would have to prove that what you withdrew and spent was principal, and not gains.

I don't think this affects NEARLY as many people as you would like us to believe.

Answer 6

truthfully no longer! Taxes are a needed evil. no person rides for loose. There are 4 regulations of ecology, in spite of the actuality that regulation a million: each thing interior the ecosystem is interconnected. regulation 2: each thing might desire to flow someplace. regulation 3: Nature is conscious ultimate. regulation 4: no person gets a loose lunch What does this might desire to do with paying taxes? each thing that occurs globally impacts us domestically. whilst somebody would not %. up their tab in a society, it ripples out in the direction of anybody else. What makes one man or woman so particular that the regulations do no longer prepare to him/her? As for heavy fines in the direction of people utilising amenities devoid of paying taxes, that sounds solid to me. this question is like asking ought to there be an selection for agencies to no longer pay their workers or shoppers to no longer pay retailers for his or her products and amenities.

Answer 7

That would depend on point of view of a particular person. Everyone has different opinion