For a simpler code
We need a new, simpler tax code to help our country. When our nation's leaders are making $34,000 and $130,000 "innocent mistakes," we have a problem. The FairTax can fix it. (Did our new treasury secretary seriously use Turbo Tax?!)
The U.S. Tax Code, which mandates that we all pay taxes or face prison, has 3.7 million words. A person reading at 200 words per minute needs almost 13 days without stopping to read (comprehend?) it. I don't care how many lawyers or CPAs you hire, there's no way to make sense of something that of size and complexity. Our tax code creates criminal activity where none would otherwise exist. There was nothing illegal about Tom Daschle using someone's limo, until he forgot to claim it on his taxes.
Last year we spent 7.6 billion hours (3,860,000 people working full-time jobs for an entire year) just to figure out how much we owe! Complying with the tax code is a tax in itself. Fortunately, we live in a country where we still (I think) have the power to change things that don't work.
We need to enact the FairTax. The FairTax is a bill before both houses of Congress (HR 25, S 25) that replaces all income, payroll, and other major federal taxes with a national sales tax. Every working person and retiree would receive 100 percent of their paycheck or pension check to spend or save as they choose. Every household would receive a monthly "Prebate" check to make the system progressive. Dramatic reductions in compliance costs and embedded taxes would give U.S. companies a huge advantage in the global economy. We would see unprecedented economic growth and prosperity that is real, not borrowed. This is the economic stimulus plan we should be considering. Much more information is available at
www.fairtax.org.
Craig Robertson Wenatchee