How would it be possible for Ron Paul to eliminate the income tax if he became president?

Question

No one likes the IRS, but how could this country stay afloat if the yearly income tax was abolished? How would public schools, police, firefighters, etc, be paid for?

Come on smart ***, if he WERE to win. This is a theoretical question.

Thank you all for explaining how it would work.

mjway23 deserves praise for taking the question seriously. thank you.

Answer 1

He can not he is a fool an not to smart.

Answer 2

Any plan to eliminate the IRS is doomed until the Senators working on the amnesty bill finish it and discover someone has to pay for the illegal immigrant's forgiven back taxes and additional social security and welfare burdens by adding 12-20 million new enrollers into the plan. I am certain both houses can come up with an alternate to the IRS to tax you more and make you think your taxes are being lowered.

By the way, technically...Ron Paul was right about 9-11, problem is he did not address what would happen in the middle east if we were not there.

Answer 3

Just like many things done by Republicans. He would surely kill the income tax the moment the new covers and printed tapes came in so everything can be to an enhanced (that means more money for the government) remuneration tax.

An aside: I've dealt with VAT taxes overseas and they are shear hell on the poor. Using a quart of milk that has a fifty cent VAT or Sales Tax, the poor and the rich will need, for health reasons, the same amount of Milk. 50 cents a week over a year is a much larger percentage of gross salary for someone making 20,000 a year than someone making 200,000 a year. This is an argument for income tax. Truly rich people spend less percentage of their income than most believe, and there are many tax loopholes for them.

Answer 4

GET REAL. If a bill was introduced to eleminate the income tax there would be a revolution. The tax lawyers and accoutants would be in the lead. If the income tax laws were repealed there would probably be hundreds of thousands of high paid ex income tax preparers out of work and going to Wal-Mart looking for jobs. Everyone knows that the only thing the politicians care about is getting re-elected and they get thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the lawyers and accountants.

Answer 5

I think that one person above me mentioned the
Fair Tax, this would shift the income tax to an additional
tax on products and goods that we purchase, it's benefits
are that the poor, who do not have much money would
in essence pay less than they do today, the higher you
income, the more goods you are likely to purchase and
you pay your fair share, the rich buy much more than the
rest of us so they would be paying their fair share.

The idea here is to abolish the IRS and all of the
bureaucrats that it takes to run that organization, saving
several millions a year in wages and government building
maintenance.

Police, Firefighters and such are paid from the cities
property taxes, not from money collected on income taxes
so this would not affect them.

Answer 6

It might be a pendantic point, but it's one I think worth mentioning: the president CANNOT abolish income taxes. Read the Constitution, Article 1, section 8:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States

And the 16th amendment:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

Now, the IRS is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. And that IS an executive branch. So Ron Paul could, theoretically, disband the IRS. Which would probably result in it being reclassified by congress, based mainly upon the argument that the 16th amendment gives them the power to collect.

So, to answer your question, it is not possible for Ron Paul to eliminate the income tax if he became president. To do that we would need to change the laws, and the president does not have that power. He could, if he desired, refuse to prosecute any and all tax evasion. Enforcement of the law is his domain. But he can't abolish it. What he wants to replace it with is the fairtax system.

The FairTax (H.R.25/S.1025) is a proposal in the United States Congress for changing tax laws to replace the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and all federal income taxes (including AMT), payroll taxes (including Social Security and Medicare taxes), corporate taxes, capital gains taxes, gift taxes, and estate taxes with a national retail sales tax, to be levied once at the point of purchase on all new goods and services. The proposal also calls for a monthly tax rebate to households of citizens and legal resident aliens, to "untax" purchases up to the poverty level. The sales tax rate, as defined in the legislation, is 23% of the total register price (23¢ of every $1 — calculated the same way as income taxes), which is comparable to a 30% traditional state sales tax (30¢ on top of every $1). Because the U.S. tax system has a hidden effect on prices, it is expected that moving to the FairTax would decrease production costs from the removal of business taxes and compliance costs, which is predicted to offset a portion of the FairTax effect on prices.

Due to the rebate, the effective tax rate is progressive on consumption and could result in a tax burden of zero or less. However, opponents assert that while progressive on consumption, the tax could be regressive on income. Opponents believe it would decrease the tax burden on high income earners and increase the tax burden on the middle class, while the plan's supporters argue that it would increase purchasing power, and decrease tax burdens by broadening the tax base and effectively taxing wealth.Many mainstream economists and tax experts believe consumption taxes, such as the FairTax, would have a positive impact on savings and investment (not taxed), ease of tax compliance, increased economic growth, incentives for international business to locate in the U.S., and increased U.S. international competitiveness (border tax adjustment in global trade). However, critics argue that it could be difficult to collect, having challenges with tax evasion, and that it may not yield enough money for the government, resulting in decreased spending, increased deficit, or a higher sales tax rate.

Answer 7

Aren't those all paid by STATE taxes? Ron Paul was to get rid of the FEDERAL income tax....all the FEDERAL income tax does is pay off the interest off of this nation's debt.

How to solve our nation's debt? Quit intervening and meddling with all those other countries which we are spending billions on.

Getting rid of the excessive gov't spending eventually leads to no debt. No debt equals having to not pay interest on that debt. Not having interest to pay on debt means the income tax is worthless.

Answer 8

No need to worry he can not win. he is as far out as the left as he wants to never fight and at least John Kerry who served in Viet-Nam voted for it before he voted against it, and Hillary voted for it and the left does love the IRS where do you think they can get money to buy votes with PORK. Like the king of pork Sheets Bird from W.Va. You know the Klu Kluxs Clan member.

Answer 9

Instead of hitting our INCOME they would hit where we SPEND our income ... taxing big business would be a suggestion. There are a lot of other ways the government collects taxes.

Answer 10

If he tried it may well well be the greatest institutional fight this country has ever seen. The simplest way would be to fist stop spending more than we have as a government.

Answer 11

it's called the Fair Tax. Niel Boortz co-authored a book about it, and it has been put before the house twice.. Everyone, except a few greedy democrat senators, wants it to happen..