The Benefits Of The Proposed Fairtax System

The Benefits of the Proposed FairTax System

September 10, 2003

Today's current tax system is a confusing mess of policies, procedures and laws that not even the best and brightest in this country can keep current with and know everything about. With over 10,000 pages of text, hundreds of thousands of pages of regulations and other pronouncements the common American does not generally know what taxes they are paying and what amount is being extracted from their incomes. The FairTax would eliminate these problems by eliminating payroll taxes, income taxes, estates taxes, gift taxes, capital gains taxes, self-employment taxes and corporate taxes. It would put in place of these many different kinds of taxes a single tax rate collected at the point of purchase.

The current tax system punishes those individuals and families that are working to live the American dream. Those who are progressing in life, gaining more education, increasing in skills and knowledge and therefore are able to work in industries that pay them more money are punished for doing so. Their incomes are taxed, their investments are taxed, and they're even taxed after death. The FairTax eliminates all of these taxes and stops punishing those moving upward and forward in our society. The FairTax system would help Americans in their ability to save and invest for their futures by not penalizing them for doing so.

The FairTax is based upon a taxpayer's ability to pay for new goods and services. Although the current income tax system claims similarity in that it is based upon a taxpayer's ability to pay, it is not necessarily true as income is taxed and income does not necessarily translate into one's ability to pay. Under the Fair Tax Plan the consumption of the individual or the family is evidence of one's ability to pay. If someone is not consuming that would inevitably mean that their money is being saved or invested, which in turn helps the economy by putting more money into the hands of