House Republicans want a 30% National Sales Tax

Discussion in 'Politics' started by gwb-trading, Jan 18, 2023.

  1. gwb-trading

    gwb-trading

    Yep... the Republicans are back pushing the Fair Tax Act against which would do away with federal income tax and replace it with a 30% National Sales Tax.

    Republicans worry a national sales tax bill would be a ‘political gift’ for Democrats
    https://www.semafor.com/article/01/...-bill-would-be-a-political-gift-for-democrats

    As part of his deal to become House speaker, Kevin McCarthy reportedly promised his party’s conservative hardliners a vote on legislation that would scrap the entire American tax code and replace it with a jumbo-sized national sales tax.

    The assurance got relatively little attention at the time, drowned out by the many other concessions McCarthy made to win his gavel. But with Democrats already attacking the proposal, some conservatives see it as a political headache in the making.

    “This is a political gift to Biden and the Democrats,” Grover Norquist, the dean of D.C. anti-tax activists, said in an interview. “I think that this is the first significant problem created for the Republican Party by the 20 people who thought that there was no downside to the approach they took.”

    The idea of a “fair tax” that would replace our current IRS code with a single sales tax was popularized on conservative talk radio in the late 1990s. It has kicked around Washington ever since, popping up in the occasional presidential platform, but never received a vote.

    Its current champion in Congress is Georgia Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter, whose Fair Tax Act would swap out the income, payroll, estate, and corporate levies for a 30% national sales tax. It would also send out “prebate” checks to soften the blow on lower income families, all while abolishing the Internal Revenue Service.

    “Nobody likes to pay taxes, or at least, I don't know anybody who does,” Carter said in a recent office interview. “But if they are going to pay a tax, I think they would much rather pay a consumption tax as opposed to an income tax.”

    Proponents argue the system is superior because it doesn’t punish people for making more money and rewards them for thrift, if they so choose.

    “If you don't want to pay a tax, don’t buy it. It's as simple as that,” the Georgia Republican said.
     
    cruisecontrol likes this.
  2. notagain

    notagain

    Any idea that collapses the bureaucracy is ok.
    To avoid digital currency, no sales tax on cash payments.
     
  3. Overnight

    Overnight

    So a lower-income family that pays 15-20% income tax and an average state sales tax of 6%, for a max of 26% tax on consumables, would now pay 36% tax on said consumables.

    Yep, way to go GOP. Make the working poor even more poor.
     
  4. kandlekid

    kandlekid

    I imagine the states would still be able to levy income and sales tax. I don't think you're looking at a
    flat tax.
     
  5. Buy1Sell2

    Buy1Sell2

    I think 30 percent is too high but yes, this is a great idea. Much less bureaucracy and much more fair. Wealthy folks will still pay way more than others and everyone will pay something. I like it.
     
  6. Such a high consumption tax would likely massively expand the black market economy. We see this now with taxes on weed and tobacco.
     
  7. Ricter

    Ricter

    Big business will oppose this, and since big business is our actual government this tax proposal will not happen.
     
  8. gwb-trading

    gwb-trading

  9. mervyn

    mervyn

    retire overseas, that is the plan.