No country has the fair tax as it's only tax, as far as I can see. Fair tax is not intended to come on top of income tax but would replace all income tax. Read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicted_effects_of_the_FairTax http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairTax The positive effects of a flat tax are tremendous and for the (income-) taxpayer a great relief in many ways, for instance no hassle with declaration and uncertainty of beeing a tax cheat or worse. With 60'000 pages of tax laws every taxpayer is a prospect for a tax fraud charge that could land in prison. Felix
Another benefit of taxing everyone the same % rate is that you don't have this huge bias where the poor don't pay any tax so are happy to vote for any tax rate at all - they aren't paying it. Non-taxpayers voting on what taxes on the rich should be is like 60 year old millionaires voting to send broke 19 year olds to war - in most cases it's just disgusting hypocrisy. If *everyone* is paying the same tax rate, then everyone will have to think morally i.e. what is a fair tax rate for *me* to pay as well as the next guy. No more robbing Peter to pay Paul - instead, Peter and Paul both have to pay the same % rate and thus decide on a rate they are both willing to tolerate. For anyone who whines about how this favours the rich, a guy earning 1 million is still going to pay 50 times more than a guy on 20k. That would get a lot of hypocrisy out of voting, and would serve as a long-term check on excessive taxes.
Flat tax doesn't work. It promotes inequality, especially because of the law system in the USA. Trickle down is a myth. If you want to simplify the taxes, you need to simplify the law. Lobbying is perceived as bribes in foreign countries, but in the USA it is common.
In America we have laws about discrimination. It's illegal to discriminate against someone because of his/her sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, disability... even weight. However, the progressive taxation system discriminates by "income"... and that should be illegal... it's certainly immoral. Our Constitution claims we are "all equal under the law"... EXCEPT taxation, of course. There should be a flat income tax + a national sales tax. EVERYBODY should get the same exemption (say, first $40K income). After that, we should all pay the same percentage. As for national sales tax... that would capture taxes from many who don't file. Certain items could be exempted... like non-prepared food, clothing under a certain price [ie, underwear purchased at Target, no sales tax.... designer undies at Nordstroms, pay the sales tax], utilities, etc. (It has been estimated that a sales tax would collect an additional $200B per year just from people who currently violate the law by not reporting or under-reporting.... and with our deficits... ) The best tax system is the one with the broadest application and the lowest rate... and Constitutionally, one standard rate and exemptions should apply equally to all. OK, Libtards and Progressives.. let me have it for this radical Right wing proposal.
Every IRS audit agent I have ever met fell into the catagory of a severely fanatic type narcissist. Nuff said.
I've got failed_trad3r on ignore, so can't respond to him directly... but he's obviously a TOTAL IDIOT, LIBTARD, ANTI-AMERICAN, "WANT SOMETHING HE HASN'T EARNED" LEFTIST!
I think it goes more like this. The smartest, most talented go where the money is greatest, and that's not public office. The money made by being a politician is in the lobbyist positions afterwords, and knowing were infrastructure is going in, specifically local politics. If you know where the new roads are going in you can buy the franchise with the better expectation of making money than those without inside info.