The FairTax

Have you heard of the FairTax? It’s a tax system that is being proposed in congress that would replace the federal income tax and payroll taxes, including gift, estate, capital gains, Social Security/Medicare, and corporate taxes. The FairTax is based on a national retail sales tax. So the more items your buy, the more you are taxed. I’ve stated a few of the main points of the FairTax below:

- Americans take home 100% of their paychecks
- No federal sales tax up to poverty level
- Monthly rebate to account for necessities
- No tax on used goods. Amount paid to fund government is totally visible.
- Retail prices wouldn’t hide corporate taxes or their compliance costs
- The income tax exports our jobs, rather than our products
- The FairTax is revenue neutrality: Neither raise nor lower taxes so consumer costs remain stable


More detailed information on these topics can be found at http://www.fairtaxvolunteer.org/smart/FairTaxFAQ.pdf or for a more general view of the tax system, go to http://fairtax.org/.

I think the FairTax system would be great. The tax system as it stands now is large and cumbersome. I find this topic very interesting and would like to hear people’s opinions. Would it work? Could we see more jobs come back to the US? How would the political scene change if this system were used?