Ah, what a treat! At long last I get to argue with somebody of the caliber of L3.
It is so boring to have to make do with mental midgets such as (censored), (censored) and (censored). Now a foe worthy of my steel!
Let’s see, where shall I start? The constitution has an amendment explicitly authorizing the personal income tax. So long as that amendment is in place, I want no
replacement taxes for the income tax. You will, I feel certain, wind up with both the income tax and the replacements as well.
That is my number one objection to the “fair tax”.
My second objection is that a sales tax of 30% would seem most likely to put us on the wrong side of the Laffler curve both as to governmental revenue and as to overall economic activity.
While I understand that $100 plus 30% equals $130 and that $30 is 23% of the total, claims of a 23% tax rub my fur the wrong way. This is not a reason to reject the “fair tax” proposal but it does make selling the idea a bit trickier.
I rather keep the income tax and see what I can do to get the maximum marginal rate down as close to 0% as possible.
Were I the Richard Potato (now don’t tell me you have never heard of Dick Tater), I think I would declare a 15% flat tax on the gross amount of every paycheck. 5% to go to the general fund and 10% to annuity of choice, the latter to replace the current Socialist Insecurity system.
Interest and dividends, except for those required to be free of federal taxation, would be subject to the same 15% withholding rate, the witholding to be remitted by the paying agent.
The above taxes would be collected after business taxation was effected. Business taxation would be based on adjusted gross income—gross income minus refunds and minus other taxes directly levied on the business in question. This tax, along wioth those other taxes, would be paid ahead of everything else, including the payroll.
By doing things this way, we skim the cream at different points of monetary circulation.
While this does resemble hidden taxation, I deem it necessary to collect at different places in order to alleviate the pain of the ripoff.
On the other hand, it eliminates the demon of “progressive” taxation and by taking from the gross amounts, reduces if not eliminates the governments ability to play favorites and divide and conquer with the tax code.
And it will pluck the goose so as to gain the maximum amount of feathers with the minimum amount of squawking.
I now retire to my bunker and see how much shelling I get in return.
