Marilyn Rickert's Posts - Fair Tax Nation2024-03-19T04:31:36ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilynhttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/364976530?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://www.fairtaxnation.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=3l789pzqjiykw&xn_auth=noWOODALL: New opportunities for tax reform and the FairTaxtag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2017-04-20:2636007:BlogPost:1995282017-04-20T17:45:47.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div><h1 class="title" id="page-title">WOODALL: New opportunities for tax reform and the FairTax</h1>
<div class="block block-system block-main block-system-main odd block-without-title" id="block-system-main"><div class="block-inner clearfix"><div class="content clearfix"><div class="panel-display panel-1col clearfix"><div class="panel-panel panel-col"><div><div class="panel-pane pane-node-created"><div class="pane-content">April 18, 2017…</div>
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<div><h1 id="page-title" class="title">WOODALL: New opportunities for tax reform and the FairTax</h1>
<div id="block-system-main" class="block block-system block-main block-system-main odd block-without-title"><div class="block-inner clearfix"><div class="content clearfix"><div class="panel-display panel-1col clearfix"><div class="panel-panel panel-col"><div><div class="panel-pane pane-node-created"><div class="pane-content">April 18, 2017</div>
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<div class="panel-pane pane-token pane-node-content-type"><div class="pane-content">In The News</div>
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<div class="panel-pane pane-entity-field pane-node-field-byline"><div class="pane-content"><div class="field field-name-field-byline field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Tax Day is fast approaching and tax reform conversations are once again front and center in households across the country. Millions of Americans busily sort through the excessively complex, often punitive tax code while thinking there must be a better way — and there is.</div>
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<div class="panel-pane pane-entity-field pane-node-field-source-url"><div class="pane-content"><div class="field field-name-field-source-url field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/opinion/columnists/woodall-new-opportunities-for-tax-reform-and-the-fairtax/article_9a09ec0c-11ed-5d0a-b2fd-bd0c8d806b57.html" target="_blank">Gwinnett Daily Post</a></div>
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<div class="panel-pane pane-entity-field pane-node-body"><div class="pane-content"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="subscriber-preview"><p>Tax Day is fast approaching and tax reform conversations are once again front and center in households across the country. Millions of Americans busily sort through the excessively complex, often punitive tax code while thinking there must be a better way — and there is.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-preview"><p>Tax reform is about much more than rates, receipts, and deadlines, though. It’s about economic growth. It’s about freedom and opportunity for all Americans to pursue what they wish to achieve. It’s about making sure our tax code works in concert with the American spirit rather than in conflict with it.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>So naturally, any tax reform proposal should start with these principles and work outward to reach that goal. That’s how the FairTax (H.R. 25) began; it’s why I introduced it in the U.S. House and have passionately pursued it since; and it’s why support continues to grow across the country and on Capitol Hill as a result. The FairTax has never been a Washington solution — it’s an American solution.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>The FairTax is a complete replacement of the current income tax system — elimination of all the loopholes, costs, and Washington control — with a transparent, one-time, inclusive, federal sales tax on new goods and services. Under the FairTax, there would be no more annual filing; no disclosure of personal information to the IRS; no more tax withholdings from your paycheck, and so on. Productivity would no longer be punished, and April 15 would be just another beautiful spring day.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>While tax reform is a common refrain in Washington, the tone of this Congress is noticeably different. With a willing partner in the White House, we have a very real opportunity to move tax reform through the House and Senate, and to the president’s desk for signature. It is a priority for President Trump, and it remains a priority of mine. That’s not to say President Trump is ready to sign the FairTax into law tomorrow, but I believe he’s open to good ideas, and he has a great team surrounding him — which includes Vice President Mike Pence, who was a co-sponsor of H.R. 25 during his time in the U.S. House.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>It’s no secret that I want tax reform to be the FairTax in full right away, but I’m willing to get there a piece at a time if I have to. In fact, today you can see the fingerprints of the FairTax are all over the House Republican tax reform proposal led by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady. As a supporter of H.R. 25 himself, Chairman Brady understands the “three yards and a cloud of dust” principle needed to move America closer to our end goal.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>If we can incorporate the FairTax principles of simplicity, transparency, and creating a level playing field for our job creators into the reform on which we agree now, America will benefit, and we’re that much closer to implementing the FairTax in the long run.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>The big ideas take time; and sending power from Washington back to the American people — as the FairTax does in a way we haven’t seen in decades — absolutely meets the criteria of a big idea. The current tax code is by far the most effective political tool for politicians to manipulate the behavior of the American people, and it has been used as such for far too long. H.R. 25 puts that power back in the hands of the American people, so institutional Washington tends to be a bit reluctant.</p>
<p>That’s why the strong foundation built by FairTax supporters across the country is so important. It doesn’t always capture headlines or trend on social media, but let me tell you, the untold Herculean efforts and tireless work done by the grassroots all across America is what separates FairTax passion from countless other ideas. Many things come and go in a time of rapid news cycles, but H.R. 25 is a constant, and remains the most widely supported fundamental tax reform bill in Congress. That matters.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>It matters because as has been said, success is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. I believe we’re on the cusp of one of those opportunities, and I’m eager to move the ball forward. From national security to health care to tax reform, America’s to-do list has no shortage of items, but unleashing the power of the American economy is a shared goal at the top of everyone’s list.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p><em>U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Ga., represents the 7th Congressional District of Georgia, which includes the majority of Forsyth and Gwinnett counties, and currently serves as Chairman of the Rules Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process, as well as serving on the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, and Budget Committee.</em></p>
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<p><a href="https://woodall.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/woodall-new-opportunities-tax-reform-and-fairtax">https://woodall.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/woodall-new-opportunities-tax-reform-and-fairtax</a></p>New -- Internet event every Tuesday in May!tag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2014-05-04:2636007:BlogPost:1871522014-05-04T16:56:06.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div>Hello Friends!</div>
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<div>We have been trying to promote the Fair Tax on Twitter for the last few weeks. Some friends of ours have put together a twitter event on Tuesday evenings in May. Your help is needed to raise the level of awareness of the Fair Tax in the Twitter world. Can't make the event? Then just Tweet about the Fair Tax as often as you can. You can follow me @midwestfairtax.</div>
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<div>Questions? Just ask!</div>
<div>Marilyn…</div>
<div>Hello Friends!</div>
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<div>We have been trying to promote the Fair Tax on Twitter for the last few weeks. Some friends of ours have put together a twitter event on Tuesday evenings in May. Your help is needed to raise the level of awareness of the Fair Tax in the Twitter world. Can't make the event? Then just Tweet about the Fair Tax as often as you can. You can follow me @midwestfairtax.</div>
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<div>Questions? Just ask!</div>
<div>Marilyn Rickert</div>
<div>@midwsetfairtax</div>
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<div><p><b>This coming Tuesday, May 6, 7-9 pm ET you have the invitation to participate in a new (for you) TWITTER event. If you indeed participate in this event... it will thrill your soul; I guarantee it.</b></p>
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<p><b>If you tweet at all (you don’t have to be good at it) and you would like the</b> <b>entire TWITTERVERSE to know about the FairTax</b><b>, this is the chance of your life time. If there is any way you can be available for an hour in that 2 hour window, you will have the twitter experience of your life... so far. Click on the link below and read all about it. Then email me at <a title="mailto:ggeett37@gmail.com" href="mailto:ggeett37@gmail.com">ggeett37@gmail.com</a> telling me you expect to participate. There are some things you need to know and do in order to maximize your impact. I’ll provide that information in a reply to your email. Maybe we’ll tour the web site during a conference call Sunday afternoon or evening.</b></p>
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<p><b>Best thing about this is you’ll have this same exciting event every Tuesday in May! Don’t miss one of these events; you’ll be able to contribute more with each additional experience.</b></p>
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<p><b><a title="http://tinyurl.com/pozrbpx" href="http://tinyurl.com/pozrbpx">http://tinyurl.com/pozrbpx</a></b></p>
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<p><b><font size="3">Detailed instructions can be found at</font> <a title="http://tinyurl.com/oxrepzm" href="http://tinyurl.com/oxrepzm">http://tinyurl.com/oxrepzm</a></b></p>
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<p><b>We will prevail if we faint not...</b></p>
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<p><b>Glen Terrell</b></p>
</div>Fair Tax Nation press release on federal tax reformtag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2014-02-26:2636007:BlogPost:1855922014-02-26T19:13:52.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div><div>For Immediate Release: Contact: Marilyn Rickert</div>
<div>February 26, 2014 (708) 687-9412</div>
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<div align="center"><font size="5">FairTax® Leader (Unusually) Praises House, Senate Tax Committee Chairmen…</font></div>
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<div><div>For Immediate Release: Contact: Marilyn Rickert</div>
<div>February 26, 2014 (708) 687-9412</div>
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<div align="center"><font size="5">FairTax® Leader (Unusually) Praises House, Senate Tax Committee Chairmen</font></div>
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<div>Fair Tax Nation, the grassroots organization advocating a national retail consumption tax to replace the income tax, today praised Ways and Means Chairman, Rep. Dave Camp and Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Sen. Ron Wyden for, "swimming upstream against destructive gridlock by renewing the push for reform of our badly broken tax system."</div>
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<div>Fair Tax Nation founder Marilyn Rickert said, "Yes, we think a far better solution to create a far more prosperous nation is the FairTax rather than merely simplifying the existing income tax code but you have to tip your hat to these men for even calling for any reform when the politics of the day has everyone else satisfied with paralysis."</div>
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<div>Rickert said a "scoring" of the Fair Tax was underway at the Joint Committee on Taxation but was delayed because, "no econometric model yet exists in our tax committees to actually measure the beneficial effects of a pure retail consumption tax." She said that past Congressional efforts to analyze the FairTax had unfairly used assumptions not contained in pending legislation that "badly skewed the findings."</div>
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<div>Rickert said, "Millions of dollars of independent, peer-reviewed research has shown that the FairTax would dramatically boost the economy, put American companies on a even playing field with foreign competitors' tax systems and reduce the tax burdens of most Americans." She added, "Now, we're anxiously waiting for Congressional committees to verify these promising conclusions on their own."</div>
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<div>"But nothing will be done to improve or replace the broken income tax system that everyone agrees is hurting our economy without a bit of courage, a bit of vision and a healthy willingness to move beyond the partisan gridlock that is paralyzing the nation," she said. "In this, we give both of these Congressional leaders our thanks."</div>
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<div><em>Fair Tax Nation is a citizen organization which supports replacement of the income tax with a national retail consumption tax. More information is available at: FairTaxNation.com</em></div>
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<div align="center"><em>xxx</em></div>
</div>Fair Tax goes to Washington D.C. You are invited to join us!tag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2014-01-14:2636007:BlogPost:1853602014-01-14T22:02:42.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div><span>Fair Tax goes to Washington D.C.</span> <span>You are invited to join us!</span></div>
<div><br></br> Hello Everyone!</div>
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<div>We will have grassroots volunteers on Capital Hill from January 24 - 29 with our main focus being on Monday January 27 and Tuesday January 28.</div>
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<div>If you can join us in DC on any of these dates we could really use your help!</div>
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<div>Please call a congressman or two or three and ask to set up an appointment to…</div>
<div><span>Fair Tax goes to Washington D.C.</span> <span>You are invited to join us!</span></div>
<div><br/> Hello Everyone!</div>
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<div>We will have grassroots volunteers on Capital Hill from January 24 - 29 with our main focus being on Monday January 27 and Tuesday January 28.</div>
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<div>If you can join us in DC on any of these dates we could really use your help!</div>
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<div>Please call a congressman or two or three and ask to set up an appointment to discuss the Fair Tax. We will have extra people to attend a meeting with you if needed for backup. If you schedule a meeting just let us know the Congressman's name, state and time so we can add him/her to our schedule. We would like to visit House Ways and Means Members but any Congressional visit would be great!</div>
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<div>Members of the House Ways and Means Committee can be found at:</div>
<div><a title="http://waysandmeans.house.gov/about/members.htm" href="http://waysandmeans.house.gov/about/members.htm" target="_blank">http://waysandmeans.house.gov/about/members.htm</a></div>
<div>Contact information can be found at: <a title="http://www.contactingthecongress.org/" href="http://www.contactingthecongress.org/" target="_blank">http://www.contactingthecongress.org/</a></div>
<div>It may be helpful to contact the Congressman's scheduler which can be found at the website above.</div>
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<div>Those who will be in DC but are not scheduling appointments or in the time between appointments we could use you on our teams to distribute Fair Tax information and to visit our sponsors to thank them and encourage them to actively promote the Fair Tax.</div>
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<div>If you will be in DC please let me or Alan Ramsay know so we can coordinate our efforts. We will need your name, cell phone number and dates you will attending.</div>
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<div>Alan Ramsay <a title="mailto:atramsay@cableone.net" href="mailto:atramsay@cableone.net">atramsay@cableone.net</a> 662-571-4706</div>
<div>Marilyn Rickert <a title="mailto:fairtaxnow@aol.com" href="mailto:fairtaxnow@aol.com">fairtaxnow@aol.com</a> cell: 708-227-8542</div>
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<div>We will have a hospitality room at the Radisson Hotel Reagan National Airport, 2020 Jeff Davis Hwy Arlington Virginia 22202 on Jan. 27 and 28 from about 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm so we can visit and share the news of the day.</div>
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<div>Questions? Just ask!</div>
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<div><font lang="0" size="2" face="Arial" xml:lang="0">Marilyn Rickert<br/>708-687-9412<br/>twitter: @midwestfairtax<br/><a title="http://www.fairtaxnation.com/" href="http://www.fairtaxnation.com/" target="_blank">www.fairtaxnation.com</a><br/><a title="https://twitter.com/FTN_org" href="https://twitter.com/FTN_org" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/FTN_org</a><br/>*</font></div>
<div><span>PS Can't make it to DC? Watch for the next email we are going to need everyone's help to invite Congressional staffers to the Fair Tax briefing on Jan. 27. Details to follow soon.</span></div>
<div><a title="http://out02.thedatabank.com/?r=MTAwMw0KSjExNzE1OC1DNDI2LU0xMDI1NDUtLWZ0YWRtaW4NCjM3MTU2NDI2MTgxMzE1NzAzMjg3ODEwMjU0NTEwNQ0KODAwMDAwMDAxN2YzZmMNCmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWRhdGFiYW5rLmNvbS9kcGcvNDI2L3NwZGYuYXNwP2Zvcm1pZD1kb25hdGUmYWFjd2M9MzcxNTY0MjYxODEzMTU3MDMyODc4MTAyNTQ1MTA1DQpkb25hdGUNCnN0ZXZlc0BzYW5jb3NlcnZpY2VzLmNvbQ==" href="http://out02.thedatabank.com/?r=MTAwMw0KSjExNzE1OC1DNDI2LU0xMDI1NDUtLWZ0YWRtaW4NCjM3MTU2NDI2MTgxMzE1NzAzMjg3ODEwMjU0NTEwNQ0KODAwMDAwMDAxN2YzZmMNCmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWRhdGFiYW5rLmNvbS9kcGcvNDI2L3NwZGYuYXNwP2Zvcm1pZD1kb25hdGUmYWFjd2M9MzcxNTY0MjYxODEzMTU3MDMyODc4MTAyNTQ1MTA1DQpkb25hdGUNCnN0ZXZlc0BzYW5jb3NlcnZpY2VzLmNvbQ%3d%3d" target="_blank"> </a></div>Tax hearing & tax reform covered by C-Span on July 18, 2013tag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2013-07-21:2636007:BlogPost:1829112013-07-21T21:53:26.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<h2>Taxing events covered by C-Span July 18, 2013</h2>
<h2><a class="modalOpen" href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/event/221788" rel="10737440511" target="_blank" title="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/event/221788"><font size="3">IRS Officials Testify on Targeting Conservative Groups</font></a></h2>
<p>The House Oversight Cmte. hears from IRS officials about the targeting of tea party & other conservative organizations. Lawmakers take a closer look at IRS headquarters in Washington and the…</p>
<h2>Taxing events covered by C-Span July 18, 2013</h2>
<h2><a class="modalOpen" title="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/event/221788" href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/event/221788" rel="10737440511" target="_blank"><font size="3">IRS Officials Testify on Targeting Conservative Groups</font></a></h2>
<p>The House Oversight Cmte. hears from IRS officials about the targeting of tea party & other conservative organizations. Lawmakers take a closer look at IRS headquarters in Washington and the Cincinnati office that dealt with tax-exempt applications.</p>
<p><a title="http://www.c-span.org/" href="http://www.C-span.org/">www.C-span.org/</a> Check your local listings for broadcast</p>
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<h2><a class="modalOpen" title="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/event/221789" href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/event/221789" rel="10737440521" target="_blank"><font size="3">Sen. Baucus (D-MT) and Rep. Camp (R-MI) Debate Tax Reform</font></a></h2>
<p>The Economic Club of Washington hosts a debate on Tax Reform between Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, and Rep....</p>
<p><a title="http://www.c-span.org/" href="http://www.C-span.org/">www.C-span.org/</a> Check your local listings for broadcast</p>National End the Income Tax Day -- action plantag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2013-03-24:2636007:BlogPost:1818412013-03-24T16:02:50.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">Good morning Fair Tax friends!</p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><a href="http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2013/03/one-hundred-years-if-the-income-tax-is-enough.html#more">http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2013/03/one-hundred-years-if-the-income-tax-is-enough.html#more…</a></p>
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<div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">Good morning Fair Tax friends!</p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><a href="http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2013/03/one-hundred-years-if-the-income-tax-is-enough.html#more">http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2013/03/one-hundred-years-if-the-income-tax-is-enough.html#more</a></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">We thank everyone for their interest and hope they will register their events no matter the date or number of people attending. We have bumper stickers and plenty of flyers, posters and signs. If there is just one or two people with signs at the right location it sends out a message, especially if it is being done all over the country. Using the website to register your individual event should bring more people out to attend and speak up. <a title="http://nationalendtheincometaxday.com/" href="http://nationalendtheincometaxday.com/">http://nationalendtheincometaxday.com/</a></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">*<br/>Next week we have scheduled several conference calls that are shown on the website. More conference calls will be scheduled if they are felt to be necessary. We encourage people to call in with their questions and share their experiences. Next week I will be sending out some press releases to key contacts. We do have a need for volunteers to make telephone calls and send emails...this truly is a grassroots effort. Marilyn, Nancy, Bill, and Rob know how much just a few highly motivated people can accomplish. Last June we reached out to over 50,000 people at at single event with only a handful of people working. National End The Income Tax Day will be much larger, because people are getting it and really want to make a difference. <a title="http://nationalendtheincometaxday.com/" href="http://nationalendtheincometaxday.com/">http://nationalendtheincometaxday.com/</a> <br/> *</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">Tomorrow at another rally we will be handing out flyers for the April 13, 2013 Rally we are hosting in Apple Valley, California. We are using rallies and meetings to promote April 13 events. We may also be present on April 15th at our main post office. The thing that is most</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">*<br/>important is that we are getting up, dressing up, showing up, and speaking up! Something as important as Ending The Income Tax in our country certainly is worth a few hour of our time. Most Americans are not slackers. This is not the time to commiserate, it is the time to participate.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">*<br/>The success of this effort will depend on many patriots doing just a little to show the country and our congress that we want the Income Tax to End and now! If you want more of the same, just stay home and do nothing and you are almost guaranteed to get the same result...nothing! We hope you think saving this country is important enough to spend a few hours of your time for. Only a few American Patriots won the Revolutionary War. Now is the time for a few good people to come to the aid of their country. Time is of the essence. <a title="http://nationalendtheincometaxday.com/" href="http://nationalendtheincometaxday.com/">http://nationalendtheincometaxday.com/</a></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">*<br/>God bless you, and thank you, <br/> John Wesley Nobles</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">760-961-1312</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><a title="mailto:John@nationalendtheincometaxday.com" href="mailto:John%40nationalendtheincometaxday.com">John@nationalendtheincometaxday.com</a></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><a href="http://www.Fairtaxtime.com">www.Fairtaxtime.com</a>, <br/><a title="mailto:jwnobles1@twitter.com" href="mailto:jwnobles1%40twitter.com">jwnobles1@twitter.com</a> John Wesley <br/>Nobles on face book</p>
</div>100 years of the Income tax is enough!tag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2013-03-18:2636007:BlogPost:1815382013-03-18T04:04:49.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<p>If you are like most folks, on February 3, 2013, you were glued to your TV set, watching a great Super Bowl. Parties with friends, and rivals, across the land celebrated the game, whether your team won or lost. And this was a good thing, because, if not for the Super Bowl, February 3, 2013 would have been a sad day indeed!!</p>
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<p>It was the One Hundredth anniversary of the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment, which allowed the first constitutional income tax in our Nation’s…</p>
<p>If you are like most folks, on February 3, 2013, you were glued to your TV set, watching a great Super Bowl. Parties with friends, and rivals, across the land celebrated the game, whether your team won or lost. And this was a good thing, because, if not for the Super Bowl, February 3, 2013 would have been a sad day indeed!!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was the One Hundredth anniversary of the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment, which allowed the first constitutional income tax in our Nation’s history. It was a horrible idea then, and was only passed because politicians in Washington promised it would only “tax the rich”. And it is a horrible idea now. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Our income tax code is too complicated for anyone, even our former Secretary of the Treasury who oversaw the IRS, to understand. It is terribly inefficient, and forces hard working Americans to spend more than $450 billion dollars, and more than 6 billion man-hours, preparing and submitting their tax returns every year, taking money out of their pockets that could be used to feed their families, pay for their children’s education, or enjoy some of life’s luxuries. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>And it is unfair!! Our progressive income tax code, sold on the promise of only taxing the wealthy, allows the wealthy to hire lobbyists to “buy” them special breaks and exemptions. The payroll portion of the income tax is regressive, hitting the poor more severely than the wealthy, while it works to make those in poverty even poorer by discouraging work and killing entrepreneurship. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>February 3, 2013, except for the Super Bowl, should have been a day of weeping, with flags lowered to half-staff, and mournful dirges played on every radio station around the clock. Politicians who supported the income tax in the past, and want to keep it in place for the future, should have been perp-walked through the streets before their public trials for lying to the American People.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>We can’t change the past, but we can prevent the same misdeeds in the future. We’ve lived with a horrible mistake for a hundred years, but we can make sure we don’t live with it for another hundred. We can dump our current income tax and replace it with a rational, reasonable, and fair system of taxation that is what we all know it should be. A system like the FairTax. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Dan Pilla laid out some basic requirements in his essay <em><b><u>Ten Principals of Federal Tax Policy</u></b></em> published by the Heartland Institute. Unlike our current income tax code, which fails miserably, the FairTax meets all his criteria,</p>
<p> </p>
<ol start="1">
<li>Simplicity <strong>--</strong> Citizens have a fundamental right to know what tax laws require, and compliance should be easy and inexpensive.</li>
<li>Noninvasiveness <strong>--</strong> A minimally invasive tax code encourages voluntary compliance and reduces the need for enforcement.</li>
<li>Efficiency -- The total cost of collecting taxes can be reduced by lowering the number of collection points.</li>
<li>Stability -- The tax code should be stable and reliable from year to year and generation to generation.</li>
<li>Visibility -- The cost of government should be readily apparent to taxpayers.</li>
<li>Neutrality -- Taxes should not fall more heavily on one industry or class of individuals than on others.</li>
<li>Economic Growth -- Taxes should not impede the investment and consumption decisions that make economic growth possible.</li>
<li>Broad-based -- Broad tax bases allow rates to be kept low, which in turn encourages voluntary compliance</li>
<li>Equality -- The tax system should treat people equally and fairly.</li>
<li>Constitutionality -- Taxes must be imposed solely to fund clearly defined constitutional functions.</li>
</ol>
<p> </p>
<p>We need to get rid of our current income tax code, and replace it with something that makes sense, the FairTax. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>We hope you will join us as we kick off our <b><i>End the Income Tax</i></b> campaign this year. Now, more than ever, our Nation needs us. Be a part of ending the travesty of our income tax, and creating a brighter future for our children with the FairTax. </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>100 Years of 16th Amendmenttag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2013-02-01:2636007:BlogPost:1797582013-02-01T03:42:49.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div align="center"><b>100 Years of 16<sup>th</sup> Amendment</b></div>
<div>February 3, 2013, another day of life in America! Many are excited about the Super Bowl. Ironically, <strong>it's</strong> also a day to celebrate <b>“The Super Tax!”</b> Yes, the 100<sup>th</sup> anniversary of <strong>the ratification of t</strong>he 16<sup>th</sup> Amendment! </div>
<div>*</div>
<div>Isn’t it great we still have some choices! Our Founding Fathers got it right– Declaration of…</div>
<div align="center"><b>100 Years of 16<sup>th</sup> Amendment</b></div>
<div>February 3, 2013, another day of life in America! Many are excited about the Super Bowl. Ironically, <strong>it's</strong> also a day to celebrate <b>“The Super Tax!”</b> Yes, the 100<sup>th</sup> anniversary of <strong>the ratification of t</strong>he 16<sup>th</sup> Amendment! </div>
<div>*</div>
<div>Isn’t it great we still have some choices! Our Founding Fathers got it right– Declaration of Independence<strong>,</strong> The <strong>Constitution,</strong> States Rights<strong>,</strong> One Person-One Vote. To <strong>protect</strong> our individual liberties they wrote in the Constitution, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 4... <strong><i>"No Capitation or other direct tax shall be laid..."</i></strong> which means <b>"NO TAX ON PEOPLE</b>". Unfortunately, the 16th nullified 1.9.4. with these 30 words... <em><b>"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on income, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration."</b></em></div>
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<div><strong>Over the last 100 years our tax code (resulting from the</strong> 16<sup>th</sup>) grew from the original 400 <strong>page flat tax</strong> to <strong>the</strong> current 73,608 page <strong>confusing tax code of graduated tax rates and special deductions so complicated it would make Karl Marx proud.</strong> <strong>The</strong> 16<sup>th</sup> gave Congress <strong>not only the power to tax income but also</strong> the power to REGULATE citizens without State involvement<strong>. It</strong> removed States as protector of citizens and created a tool to manipulate <strong>and</strong> control individual success <strong>and</strong> behavior. <strong>The tax code</strong> encourages tax evasion, tax shelters and grows the underground economy. Senator Barry Goldwater said... <em>"The Income Tax created more criminals than any other single act of government.”</em></div>
<div>*</div>
<div><strong>The</strong> 16<sup>th</sup> <strong>Amendment is the biggest Blank Check given to the federal government. It is the official declaration of Class Warfare in America and the root cause of our political/fiscal troubles today. P</strong>oliticians <strong>use the tax code to pick</strong> winners and losers<strong>. American businesses pay</strong> the World’s highest tax rate<strong>s.</strong> USA businesses <strong>have become</strong> less competitive <strong>globally, causing</strong> trillions of dollars <strong>and millions of jobs</strong> to be moved <strong>off-shore.</strong> <strong>100 years ago the</strong> 16<sup>th</sup> <strong>Amendment opened</strong> the gates to the eventual destruction of personal liberties <strong>in America.</strong></div>
<div>*</div>
<div>Have you had enough? Have you given up hope in a politically divided Washington ever resolving this unfair tyrannical tax system? Are you tired of the bickering and finger-pointing? Do you want <strong>the</strong> 16<sup>th</sup> <strong>Amendment,</strong> Income Tax and <strong>the</strong> IRS to go away? Do you want your freedoms back? These are the feelings our Forefathers had toward <strong>the taxes forced on them by</strong> the British, and the reason they revolted.</div>
<div>*</div>
<div><strong><i>We the People</i></strong> <strong>have the power and the Constitutional right to change this.</strong> Edmund Burke said it best “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”. <strong>T</strong>here is a <b>non-partisan</b> solution developed by businessmen and economists<strong>,</strong> <strong>backed by extensive research,</strong> to be the best way <strong>for our nation</strong> to raise REVENUE <strong>without</strong> REGULAT<strong>ING, plus be FAIR to all Americans.</strong> <b>HR25/S122 –The FairTax <strong>Act</strong></b><strong>.</strong></div>
<div>* </div>
<div><strong>Get the facts about FairTax</strong> <strong>at</strong> <a title="http://www.fairtax.org/" href="http://www.fairtax.org/" target="_blank">www.fairtax.org</a> <strong>For additional information g</strong><strong>o to</strong> <a title="http://www.fairtaxnation.com/" href="http://www.fairtaxnation.com/" target="_blank">www.fairtaxnation.com</a> and <a title="http://www.fairtaxdave.com/" href="http://www.fairtaxdave.com/">www.fairtaxdave.com</a></div>One Million Ways to pass the Fair Taxtag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2012-08-17:2636007:BlogPost:1763472012-08-17T13:15:12.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<p>Congressman Rob Woodall, sponsor of the Fair Tax Bill HR 25, raised an interesting point in his radio interview on <a href="http://www.FairTaxTime.com">www.FairTaxTime.com</a> the Fair Tax radio program there are a million ways to help pass the Fair Tax.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In talking to people who would like to help pass the Fair Tax I am often asked "What can I do to help". My suggestion is we all work together to make a list of one million ways to pass the Fair Tax. Keep it simple and short.…</p>
<p>Congressman Rob Woodall, sponsor of the Fair Tax Bill HR 25, raised an interesting point in his radio interview on <a href="http://www.FairTaxTime.com">www.FairTaxTime.com</a> the Fair Tax radio program there are a million ways to help pass the Fair Tax.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In talking to people who would like to help pass the Fair Tax I am often asked "What can I do to help". My suggestion is we all work together to make a list of one million ways to pass the Fair Tax. Keep it simple and short. For example:</p>
<p>1. Talk to your children and grandchildren about the Fair Tax.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>What would you add to our list of one million ways to pass the Fair Tax?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>To listen to Congressman Rob Woodall's interview on passing the Fair Tax in 2013 go to:</p>
<div><a title="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fairtax4ca/2012/08/16/is-it-already-too-late-for-fair-tax" href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fairtax4ca/2012/08/16/is-it-already-too-late-for-fair-tax">http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fairtax4ca/2012/08/16/is-it-already-too-late-for-fair-tax</a></div>
<div>Rob Woodall's interview begins about 15 min into the program. The phone lines were jammed so he had some problems calling in. Be patient, his message is well worth the wait!</div>Our half page ad in Budget & Tax News -- a publication delivered to legislatorstag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2012-05-22:2636007:BlogPost:1684682012-05-22T00:40:31.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div><div align="center"><strong><em><font color="#0000FF" size="5">Fair Tax</font></em></strong></div>
<p align="center"><em><font color="#FF0000" size="4"><strong>An Issue for Winners</strong></font></em></p>
<p align="center"></p>
<p align="center"><b><font color="#0000FF" size="4">Under the FairTax, almost everyone is a Winner.</font></b></p>
<p align="center"></p>
<p align="left"><b><font color="#FF0000" size="4">Opponents of the FairTax live in a make-believe world where they try to claim…</font></b></p>
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<div><div align="center"><strong><em><font color="#0000FF" size="5">Fair Tax</font></em></strong></div>
<p align="center"><em><font color="#FF0000" size="4"><strong>An Issue for Winners</strong></font></em></p>
<p align="center"></p>
<p align="center"><b><font color="#0000FF" size="4">Under the FairTax, almost everyone is a Winner.</font></b></p>
<p align="center"></p>
<p align="left"><b><font color="#FF0000" size="4">Opponents of the FairTax live in a make-believe world where they try to claim “it will never happen”, or that “it’s a political loser”, but in reality the FairTax is a Winner.</font></b></p>
<p align="left"></p>
<p align="left"><b><font color="#0000FF" size="4">Candidates in the 2010 election who strongly supported the FairTax won 86% of their races. Even candidates who only gave the FairTax tepid support won 44% of their races. By contrast, similar candidates who didn’t support the FairTax won only 22% of their races.</font></b></p>
<p align="left"></p>
<p align="left"><b><font color="#FF0000" size="4">Conservatives Win with the FairTax because it reduces the size, scope and power of government over the lives of the People, and prevents IRS intrusion into the lives of all Americans.</font></b></p>
<p align="left"></p>
<p align="left"><b><font color="#0000A0" size="4">The poor are Winners with the FairTax because it helps break the poverty cycle and provides a path to independence and personal responsibility.</font></b></p>
<p align="left"></p>
<p align="left"><b><font size="4"><font color="#FF0000">American businesses and workers are Winners with the FairTax because it untaxes business, increases competitiveness, and will return American jobs to American workers.</font></font></b></p>
<p align="left"></p>
<p align="left"><b><font size="4"><font color="#0000FF">The Constitution is a Winner under the FairTax, because, as the Sixteenth Amendment is repealed, the original Vision of Our Founders is restored.</font></font></b></p>
<p align="left"></p>
<p align="center"><b><font color="#FF0000" size="4">The Fair Tax</font></b></p>
<p align="center"><b><font color="#FF0000" size="4">Once you understand it,</font></b></p>
<p align="center"><b><font color="#FF0000" size="4">You’ll demand it!!</font></b></p>
<p align="center"></p>
<p align="center"><b><i><font color="#FF0000" size="4">Help Support the FairTax</font></i></b></p>
<p align="center"><b><i><font color="#FF0000" size="4">Join our Five for FairTax Campaign at</font></i></b></p>
<p align="center"><b><i><font color="#FF0000" size="4">Fiveforfairtax.org</font></i></b></p>
<p align="center"></p>
<p align="center"><b><i><font color="#FF0000" size="4">Learn more about the FairTax</font></i></b></p>
<p align="center"><b><i><font color="#FF0000" size="4">Join other FairTax Supporters</font></i></b></p>
<p align="center"><b><i><font color="#FF0000" size="4">Fairtaxnation.com</font></i></b></p>
</div>Taking Fair Tax to Las Vegastag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2012-05-01:2636007:BlogPost:1674282012-05-01T02:09:05.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
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<tbody><tr><td><div><div>This week is the National Libertarian Convention will be held in Las Vegas, NV. We have…</div>
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<tbody><tr><td><div><div>This week is the National Libertarian Convention will be held in Las Vegas, NV. We have arranged for a Fair Tax booth at the convention to educate the participants and candidates on the Fair Tax.</div>
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<div> </div>
<div>As you may know Governor Gary Johnson is the only presidential candidate that is openly supporting the Fair Tax. Fair Tax Nation does not support candidates of any political party but if Gary Johnson does receive the nomination of the Libertarian Party and polls at 15% nationally, he will be on the debate stage with President Obama and the Republican candidate. Gary Johnson can bring Fair Tax into the national presidential debate.</div>
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<div> </div>
<div>We will be broadcasting a special program live from the Libertarian Convention:</div>
<div><strong>Wednesday, May 2, 2012</strong></div>
<div><div>Fair Tax Time Radio Program</div>
<div>Live every Wednesday</div>
<div>9 - 10 pm ET, 6 - 7 pm PT -- time may be extended for this special event</div>
<div>Call in number; (619) 393-6478</div>
<div>Listen at: <a title="http://tiny.cc/4v67aw" href="http://tiny.cc/4v67aw">http://tiny.cc/4v67aw</a></div>
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<div> </div>
<div>The link to the radio program can be found on the right column on the main page of <a title="http://www.fairtaxnation.com/" href="http://www.fairtaxnation.com/">www.FairTaxNation.com</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div><br/> </div>
<div>Press reports of the nomination are hopeful in spite of opposition:</div>
<div><a style="color: #1111cc;" title="http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.alamogordonews.com/ci_20478627/former-nm-governor-johnson-steaming-toward-libertarian-presidential&ct=ga&cad=CAEQAxgAIAAoATADOANAna3s_ARIAVAAWABiBWVuLVVT&cd=JKp-S98i5Bs&usg=AFQjCNH16elIRlGEsDozletkq7iy_HHwBQ" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.alamogordonews.com/ci_20478627/former-nm-governor-johnson-steaming-toward-libertarian-presidential&ct=ga&cad=CAEQAxgAIAAoATADOANAna3s_ARIAVAAWABiBWVuLVVT&cd=JKp-S98i5Bs&usg=AFQjCNH16elIRlGEsDozletkq7iy_HHwBQ" target="_blank">Former NM governor Johnson steaming toward Libertarian presidential nomination</a> <a style="color: #777777; text-decoration: none;"><font size="-1">Alamogordo Daily News</font></a></div>
<div> </div>
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<div>If you can volunteer to staff the booth please contact Gene Simmons <a title="mailto:ebsjr@cox.net" href="mailto:ebsjr@cox.net">ebsjr@cox.net</a></div>
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<div> </div>
<div><strong>Fair Tax Nation runs on a shoe string budget but we make every dollar count so we can attend important events around the nation. Please consider sending a donation to Fair Tax Nation to help take Fair Tax message to the American people! <a title="https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/426/spdf.asp?formid=donate" href="https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/426/spdf.asp?formid=donate">https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/426/spdf.asp?formid=donate</a></strong></div>
<div><strong>or use the donate button on <a title="http://www.fairtaxnation.com/" href="http://www.fairtaxnation.com/">www.FairTaxNation.com</a></strong></div>
<div> </div>
<div><br/> </div>
<div>Questions? Just ask!</div>
<div>Marilyn Rickert</div>
<div>Fair Tax Nation does not endorse or support any candidate or political party</div>
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</table>Congressman Woodall's Tax Day Press Release 4/17/2012tag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2012-04-22:2636007:BlogPost:1673752012-04-22T13:23:39.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<p align="center"><b>THE FAIRTAX: BOLD SOLUTIONS FOR A BETTER AMERICA</b></p>
<p align="center"></p>
<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Woodall (R-GA) spearheaded a Tax Day morning press conference calling on Americans to get the word out to their Representatives in Washington that they want bold tax reform solutions—not political gimmicks. Woodall, the primary sponsor of H.R. 25, The FairTax, along with many other FairTax co-sponsors from both the House and the Senate (S. 13), as well as the…</p>
<p align="center"><b>THE FAIRTAX: BOLD SOLUTIONS FOR A BETTER AMERICA</b></p>
<p align="center"></p>
<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Woodall (R-GA) spearheaded a Tax Day morning press conference calling on Americans to get the word out to their Representatives in Washington that they want bold tax reform solutions—not political gimmicks. Woodall, the primary sponsor of H.R. 25, The FairTax, along with many other FairTax co-sponsors from both the House and the Senate (S. 13), as well as the Presidents of the National Small Business Association and the National Taxpayers Union, made remarks in support of The FairTax as the solution to our nation’s broken tax code.</p>
<p></p>
<p>“H.R. 25, The FairTax, would repeal all federal corporate and personal income taxes, and replace them with a revenue-neutral personal consumption tax. Under the FairTax, hardworking Americans would take home 100 percent of their paychecks. On top of that, companies and consumers would no longer have to worry about the embedded taxes on labor and production. When that happens, these companies will take advantage of the world’s most productive workforce: the American workforce,” Woodall said.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The press conference happened during a week of heavy tax reform discussion on Capitol Hill. With America hearing so much about the President’s latest gimmick in the so-called “Buffett Rule,” Woodall and his colleagues gathered at the U.S. Capitol to focus on real and meaningful reform.</p>
<p></p>
<p>“Seventy percent of our income tax revenue comes from the top ten percent of earners. Nearly half the nation paid nothing in income tax, and in fact millions received a check instead. The President’s solution to this issue is to continue his politics of division by promoting this so-called ‘Buffett Rule’—a bill that will pay for less than 0.1 percent of the $47 trillion he proposes to spend in his 2013 budget proposal,” Woodall said.</p>
<p></p>
<p>He continued, “The purpose of our tax code should be to collect revenue to run the government—not use it as a tool to pick winners and losers, manipulate consumer behavior, and shape economic outcomes. Our solution takes this destructive tool out of the hands of the federal government and allows every American to become a voluntary taxpayer.”</p>
<p></p>
<p>Georgia Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, as well Georgia Representatives Tom Price and Phil Gingrey attended the event.</p>
<p></p>
<p>“I’m honored to have the support of my Georgia colleagues and I thank them for taking time out of their busy schedules to advocate for bold solutions,” Woodall said.</p>
<p></p>
<p>“It’s time to stop arguing over the minutia and start making the bold decisions Americans sent us here to make. There is something to be said for making small steps toward progress. However, when it comes to overhauling America’s tax code, I think we need bold steps and we need them quickly. Pass the FairTax today and we’ll start seeing results tomorrow.”</p>
<p></p>
<p>Both the House and Senate versions of The FairTax have the most co-sponsors of any other fundamental tax reform bill currently in Congress. Last year it received a full hearing from the House Ways and Means Committee and has been included in the FY2012 House-passed Budget Report.</p>Fair Tax Press Conferencetag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2012-04-11:2636007:BlogPost:1665332012-04-11T14:50:47.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<p align="center"><b>FAIRTAX LEADERS TO GATHER FOR TAX DAY PRESS CONFERENCE</b></p>
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<p><b><i>WASHINGTON, D.C.</i></b> <i>–</i> The American people demand bold solutions. Congressman Rob Woodall’s (R-GA) bill, H.R. 25, The FairTax, is one of the boldest tax reform bills in Congress. This Tuesday, April 17, Congressman Rob Woodall, along with several H.R. 25 co-sponsors, the President of the National Small Business Association, and the President of the National Taxpayers…</p>
<p align="center"><b>FAIRTAX LEADERS TO GATHER FOR TAX DAY PRESS CONFERENCE</b></p>
<p align="center"></p>
<p><b><i>WASHINGTON, D.C.</i></b> <i>–</i> The American people demand bold solutions. Congressman Rob Woodall’s (R-GA) bill, H.R. 25, The FairTax, is one of the boldest tax reform bills in Congress. This Tuesday, April 17, Congressman Rob Woodall, along with several H.R. 25 co-sponsors, the President of the National Small Business Association, and the President of the National Taxpayers Union, will host a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol. Participants in the press conference will voice their support for fundamental tax reform, and call upon the American people to do their part in urging their Representatives in Congress to support the kind of tax code overhaul that the FairTax offers.</p>
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<tbody><tr><td><div><p>Participants will include</p>
<p><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">Tax Day Press Conference—Unleash America’s Economy with the FairTax</span></strong></p>
<p>Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX)</p>
<p>Congressman Ander Crenshaw (R-FL)</p>
<p>Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX)</p>
<p>Congressman Blake Farenthold (R-TX)</p>
<p>Congressman Phil Gingrey (R-GA)</p>
<p>Congressman Steve King (R-IA)</p>
<p>Congressman Rich Nugent (R-FL)</p>
<p>Congressman Tom Price (R-GA)</p>
<p>Congressman Phil Roe (R-TN)</p>
<p>Congressman Marlin Stutzman (R-IN)</p>
<p>Congressman Rob Woodall (R-GA)</p>
<p>Todd McCracken, President, National Small Business Association</p>
<p>Duane Parde, President, National Taxpayers Union</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Please join us at this event!</p>
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</table>FairTax Co-Founder Bob McNair co-hosted broadcast of CNBC's "Squawk Box."tag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2012-03-21:2636007:BlogPost:1645682012-03-21T01:16:29.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div><div><font style="font-weight: bold; color: #ef3023;">Update: <a href="http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000078990" target="_blank">View the recorded segment here</a></font></div>
<div>FairTax Co-Founder Bob McNair co-hosted this morning's broadcast of CNBC's "Squawk Box." Bob discusses the FairTax at about 7:20 minutes into the piece, and the discussion goes to 11:48 minutes. Sub-topics include wealthy who invest instead of consume, the pre-bate, increased revenue to the government in…</div>
</div>
<div><div><font style="font-weight: bold; color: #ef3023;">Update: <a href="http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000078990" target="_blank">View the recorded segment here</a></font></div>
<div>FairTax Co-Founder Bob McNair co-hosted this morning's broadcast of CNBC's "Squawk Box." Bob discusses the FairTax at about 7:20 minutes into the piece, and the discussion goes to 11:48 minutes. Sub-topics include wealthy who invest instead of consume, the pre-bate, increased revenue to the government in times of economic recession, ease and efficiency of collection and benefits to manufacturing.</div>
<div>Watch at: <a title="http://tiny.cc/a9q9aw" href="http://tiny.cc/a9q9aw">http://tiny.cc/a9q9aw</a></div>
<div>I have no information on what happened to the original interview with Bob McNair and Leo Linbeck. Sorry for the inconvenience but unfortunately we can not control what happens on the program.</div>
<div>You may want to send CNBC an email thanking them for coverage of the Fair Tax and ask them to do more programing on the topic. <a title="http://www.cnbc.com/id/22737253" href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/22737253" target="_blank">http://www.cnbc.com/id/22737253</a></div>
<div>Thanks for your patience!</div>
<div>Marilyn Rickert</div>
<div>Join us for the National Fair Tax Town Hall <a href="http://tiny.cc/rt4gbw">http://tiny.cc/rt4gbw</a></div>
</div>The February FairTax Webinartag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2012-02-04:2636007:BlogPost:1621992012-02-04T17:00:03.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<p><span style="color: #024c8e; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 21px;">The February FairTax Webinar</span></p>
<p><strong>With Special Topic</strong>: Actual Dollars the FairTax Puts in Your Pocket Compared to Our Current Tax Code</p>
<p><strong>When</strong>: Thursday, February 23, 2012</p>
<p><strong>Time</strong>: 8 pm Eastern, 7 pm Central, 6 pm Mountain, 5 pm Pacific</p>
<p><strong>Where</strong>: At your personal computer anywhere!</p>
<p><strong>Why</strong>: To provide an…</p>
<p><span style="color: #024c8e; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 21px;">The February FairTax Webinar</span></p>
<p><strong>With Special Topic</strong>: Actual Dollars the FairTax Puts in Your Pocket Compared to Our Current Tax Code</p>
<p><strong>When</strong>: Thursday, February 23, 2012</p>
<p><strong>Time</strong>: 8 pm Eastern, 7 pm Central, 6 pm Mountain, 5 pm Pacific</p>
<p><strong>Where</strong>: At your personal computer anywhere!</p>
<p><strong>Why</strong>: To provide an interactive forum for people who cannot get to local meetings to learn about the FairTax and to present special topics that are frequently misunderstood or not generally discussed.</p>
<p><strong>Who</strong>: Join Marc Manieri, Americans for Fair Taxation Community Coordinator in the Greater Orlando, Florida area. In their third year now, Marc’s webinars draw national participation from seasoned FairTax supporters as well as those just getting introduced to the FairTax.</p>
<p><strong>Join</strong><span>: To participate,</span> <a title="http://www.fairtax.org/site/R?i=CAaF_F7VfeWUNcJeCtnHRg" href="http://www.fairtax.org/site/R?i=CAaF_F7VfeWUNcJeCtnHRg" target="_blank">register here</a> and watch for the confirmation email<span>. For more information contact Larry Walters at</span> <a title="mailto:repeal_16@earthlink.net" href="mailto:repeal_16@earthlink.net" target="_blank">repeal_16@earthlink.net</a><span>.</span></p>Is John Huntsman's tax plan better than the Fair Tax?tag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2011-12-25:2636007:BlogPost:1604672011-12-25T16:02:26.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div>Is John Huntsman's tax plan better than the Fair Tax? I went to the Huntsman's website to learn more <a href="http://jon2012.com/issues/jobs-economy-regulatory-reform">http://jon2012.com/issues/jobs-economy-regulatory-reform</a> This is my opinion on how the Huntsman plan compares to the Fair Tax.</div>
<div>*</div>
<div>Individual Taxes Excerpt:</div>
<div><strong>Simplify the Personal Income Tax Code and Lower Rates</strong></div>
<div><em>introduce a revenue-neutral plan that…</em></div>
<div>Is John Huntsman's tax plan better than the Fair Tax? I went to the Huntsman's website to learn more <a href="http://jon2012.com/issues/jobs-economy-regulatory-reform">http://jon2012.com/issues/jobs-economy-regulatory-reform</a> This is my opinion on how the Huntsman plan compares to the Fair Tax.</div>
<div>*</div>
<div>Individual Taxes Excerpt:</div>
<div><strong>Simplify the Personal Income Tax Code and Lower Rates</strong></div>
<div><em>introduce a revenue-neutral plan that eliminates all deductions and credits in favor of three drastically lower rates of 8%, 14% and 23%.</em></div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">A plan that is revenue-neutral is good -- the Fair Tax is also revenue neutral but as you will see supporting an income tax is much more expensive that supporting the Fair Tax.</font></div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">The Huntsman's tax plan does not mention the payroll taxes -- the taxes that most people pay -- so you will need to add 15.5% to each of the rate which would make the <strong>rates 23.5%, 29.5% and 38.5% of everything you earn compared to the Fair Tax rate of 23% of what you spend for personal consumption.</strong></font></div>
<div><strong>*</strong></div>
<div>Individual Taxes Excerpt:</div>
<div><em>Eliminating deductions and credits in favor of lower marginal rates</em></div>
<div><div><font color="#0000FF">If you donate money to charity -- the Fair Tax rate is ZERO.</font></div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">If you spend your money on tuition -- the Fair Tax rate is ZERO</font></div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">If you buy a used item -- the Fair Tax Rate is ZERO</font></div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">If you make a mortgage, credit card, or car payment -- your Fair Tax rate is ZERO</font></div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">If you are a citizen or legal resident and not in jail -- your Fair Tax rate is ZERO up to the poverty level</font></div>
</div>
<div>*</div>
<div>Individual Taxes Excerpt:</div>
<div><strong>Eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax</strong> <font color="#0000FF">Wonderful! The Fair Tax does this also.</font></div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">*</font></div>
<div>Corporate Taxes Excerpt:</div>
<div><strong>Reduce the Corporate Rate from 35% to 25%</strong></div>
<div><strong><font color="#0000FF">The Fair Tax reduces the corporate rate to ZERO.</font></strong></div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">Remember businesses do not pay taxes -- a business only collects taxes (plus compliance costs) from you, the consumer, and passes your money on to the government</font>.</div>
<div>*</div>
<div>Corporate Taxes Excerpt:</div>
<div><strong>Shift from a Worldwide System of Taxation to a Territorial System</strong> <font color="#0000FF">Not a clue on the website on how he plans to do this so I will withhold comment until more information is available.</font></div>
<div>*</div>
<div>Corporate Taxes Excerpt:</div>
<div><strong>Implement a Tax Holiday for Repatriation of Corporate Profits</strong></div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">Why a holiday? The Fair Tax will allow corporations to bring their profits back to the US at a ZERO tax rate and provides them with a tax system that will encourage them to do so ASAP!</font></div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">*</font></div>
<div>Capital Gains and Dividends Excerpt:</div>
<div><strong>Eliminate the Taxes on Capital Gains and Dividends In Order to Eliminate the Double Taxation on Investment</strong> <font color="#0000FF">Let's understand this one -- if you make your money from Capital Gains or Dividends you have a zero tax individual tax rate but if you earn your money through your job then you will pay 23.5%, 29.5%, or 38.%. With the Fair Tax we do not care how you earn your money, only how you spend it. If you spend your money on personal consumption you will pay the 23% Fair Tax.</font></div>Newt Gingrich's "Fair and Simple" tax plantag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2011-12-18:2636007:BlogPost:1600902011-12-18T05:53:20.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div><div>I was watching a YouTube video by Newt Gingrich where he said to "throw out the tax code and replace it with one that is simple and fair." So I went to his website at newt.org to look at his tax reform plan. I would like to share my opinion on the Newt Gingrich tax "simple and fair" tax plan compared to the Fair Tax.</div>
<div>*…</div>
</div>
<div><div>I was watching a YouTube video by Newt Gingrich where he said to "throw out the tax code and replace it with one that is simple and fair." So I went to his website at newt.org to look at his tax reform plan. I would like to share my opinion on the Newt Gingrich tax "simple and fair" tax plan compared to the Fair Tax.</div>
<div>*</div>
<div><div><a title="http://www.newt.org/solutions/jobs-economy" href="http://www.newt.org/solutions/jobs-economy">http://www.newt.org/solutions/jobs-economy</a> Excerpt:</div>
<div><em><strong>Make the United States the most desirable location for new business investment</strong> through a bold series of tax cuts, including: Eliminating the capital gains tax to make American entrepreneurs more competitive against those in other countries</em>; <font color="#0000FF">The Fair Tax would bring the capital gains tax to zero too - so far so good</font></div>
<div>*</div>
<div>Dramatically reducing the corporate income tax (among highest in the world) to 12.5%; Allowing for 100% expensing of new equipment to spur innovation and American manufacturing; <font color="#0000FF">The Fair Tax would bring the corporate tax rate to zero -- 12.5% for the Gingrich plan? If 12.5% is good I think zero would be better!</font></div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">Remember businesses do not pay taxes -- a business only collects taxes (plus compliance costs) from the consumer and passes your money on to the government</font>.</div>
<div>*</div>
<div><em>Ending the death tax</em> permanently. <font color="#0000FF">The Fair Tax does this also</font></div>
<div>*</div>
<div><a title="http://www.newt.org/solutions/jobs-economy" href="http://www.newt.org/solutions/jobs-economy">http://www.newt.org/solutions/jobs-economy</a> Excerpt: <strong>Move toward an optional flat tax of 15%</strong> that would allow Americans the freedom to choose to file their taxes on a postcard, saving hundreds of billions in unnecessary costs each year. This optional flat tax system will preserve deductions on charitable giving and home ownership, and create a new personal deduction of $12,000 for every American. <font color="#0000FF">The optional Flat Tax means we keep our current income tax code and add a second "optional flat tax code" on top or the current tax code -- do we really need more pages of tax code? The Fair Tax also means you take home your paycheck free of federal withholding thus you make donations to charity with money that has never been taxed. Your entire mortgage payment, credit card payment and car payment will also be paid in pretax dollars.</font></div>
<div>*</div>
<div>This deduction is well above the current poverty level, ensuring that this new system does not unfairly target the poor. <font color="#0000FF">This part is a mystery to me because most poor people pay more in Social Security and Medicare taxes than income taxes. The taxes on Social Security and Medicare are not mentions but if they remain the same that means the 15% income rate plus the 15.5% payroll taxes equals a 30.5% tax rate -- far ahead of the 23% Fair Tax rate.</font></div>
<div>*</div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">Also it appears the Gingrich plan does not protect your privacy, you still need to report your income to the government. Under the Fair Tax your income, spending, and savings are none of the government's business</font></div>
<div>*</div>
<div>My 2 cents,</div>
<div>Marilyn</div>
</div>
</div>My opinion on Heritage Foundation's new Flat Tax plantag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2011-12-15:2636007:BlogPost:1598792011-12-15T21:43:07.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<p>Heritage announces its new tax plan -- The New Flat Tax--Easy as One, Two, Three </p>
<div><font color="#0000FF">Note how Heritage feels its rate is low at 28% but ignores the Fair Tax rate even lower rate of 23%.</font></div>
<div><div>Heritage Excerpt:</div>
<div><em>A rate of 28 percent is comparable to or significantly below the typical rate facing an individual or family today. A working family today is subject to a 15.3 percent payroll tax rate, plus either a 15 percent or 25 percent…</em></div>
</div>
<p>Heritage announces its new tax plan -- The New Flat Tax--Easy as One, Two, Three </p>
<div><font color="#0000FF">Note how Heritage feels its rate is low at 28% but ignores the Fair Tax rate even lower rate of 23%.</font></div>
<div><div>Heritage Excerpt:</div>
<div><em>A rate of 28 percent is comparable to or significantly below the typical rate facing an individual or family today. A working family today is subject to a 15.3 percent payroll tax rate, plus either a 15 percent or 25 percent individual income tax rate, for a combined rate of 30.3 percent or 35.3 percent.</em></div>
</div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">The Fair Tax plan is also simpler -- make a purchase and pay the tax</font></div>
<div>Heritage Excerpt:</div>
<div><em>For individuals, the New Flat Tax is as simple as one, two, three—one rate, two credits, three deductions. The New Flat Tax applies a single tax rate, about 28 percent, to wages and salaries and related benefits after subtracting all net saving. Taxable income is reduced by the net amount contributed to savings, and savings will be taxable only when spent</em>.</div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">Also it appears the Heritage plan does not protect your privacy, you still need to report your income to the government. Under the Fair Tax your income, spending, and savings are none of the government's business.</font></div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">Fair Tax on business -- zero tax rate</font></div>
<div>Heritage Excerpt:</div>
<div><em>Today’s business tax code is replaced with a tax on the sales of domestic goods and services with deductions for labor costs and business costs, including expensing of capital purchases. After a brief transition period all business activity, including corporate, will be taxed at the same, low rate that applies to individuals.</em><font color="#0000FF"> Really? 28% a low rate for business -- try zero.</font></div>
<div><font color="#0000FF">Remember businesses do not pay taxes -- a business only collects taxes (plus compliance costs) from the consumer and passes your money on to the government</font>.</div>
<div><a title="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/12/the-new-flat-tax-easy-as-one-two-three" href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/12/the-new-flat-tax-easy-as-one-two-three">http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/12/the-new-flat-tax-easy-as-one-two-three</a></div>
<div>It really should not surprise anyone why the Flat Tax advocates do not want to compare their tax plan to the Fair Tax in a public forum -- because Fair Tax wins!</div>
<div>Thanks,</div>
<div>Marilyn Rickert</div>Fair Tax to testify before Joint Ecomomy Committee in Congresstag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2011-11-13:2636007:BlogPost:1573802011-11-13T05:15:01.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<p>Contact: James Lafferty</p>
<p>(703) 931-2324</p>
<p> </p>
<p align="center">FAIR TAX REPRESENTATIVE INVITED TO TESTIFY</p>
<p align="center">BEFORE<br></br>JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE</p>
<p><i> </i></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Americans for Fair Taxation (AFFT) has been invited to testify at a Joint Economic Committee hearing on<br></br>“How U.S. Tax Policy Affects Business Investment and Job Creation” at 10 a.m., Thursday, November 17.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>AFT Chairman Leo Linbeck Jr. said a letter of invitation to…</p>
<p>Contact: James Lafferty</p>
<p>(703) 931-2324</p>
<p> </p>
<p align="center">FAIR TAX REPRESENTATIVE INVITED TO TESTIFY</p>
<p align="center">BEFORE<br/>JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE</p>
<p><i> </i></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Americans for Fair Taxation (AFFT) has been invited to testify at a Joint Economic Committee hearing on<br/>“How U.S. Tax Policy Affects Business Investment and Job Creation” at 10 a.m., Thursday, November 17.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>AFT Chairman Leo Linbeck Jr. said a letter of invitation to testify before the committee was sent by JEC Vice<br/>Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas).</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Economist Dan Mastromarco will testify on behalf of AFFT.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“We welcome the opportunity to discuss the FairTax proposal with members of Congress,” Linbeck said. <br/>“The FairTax would be the single best law that Congress could pass to create jobs and give our economy a permanent boost.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“We also would like to discredit the misplaced criticism that a national sales tax like the FairTax would<br/>unfairly impact middle class families.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“In fact, the FairTax specifically ‘untaxes’ the poor and lowers middle class tax burdens while allowing every wage earner to take home paychecks without federal withholding or payroll taxes deducted.</p>
<p><br/><br/></p>
<p>“We look forward to a fair hearing in the Congress where we will have the opportunity to describe the many<br/>benefits of FairTax to the informed members of the Joint Economic Committee and<br/>answer any questions.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p align="center">### </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Americans For Fair Taxation was formed<br/>in 1995. It is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots organization solely<br/>dedicated to replacing the current tax system with a progressive national<br/>retail sales tax, a “prebate” to ensure no American pays federal taxes on<br/>spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality,<br/>and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment.<b> </b></p>
<p><br/><br/></p>
<p align="center"><b>Toll Free:</b><br/> 800-FAIRTAX 800-FAIRTAX <br/><b>Fax:</b> 713-963-8403 <br/><b>Address:</b> PO Box 27487 <br/>Houston, TX <br/>77227-7487</p>
<p><br/><br/></p>
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.FairTax">www.FairTax</a> .org</p>
<p><br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>Press Release: Mitt Romney misstates the FairTax 9/13/2011tag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2011-09-13:2636007:BlogPost:1516542011-09-13T15:36:45.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<p align="left"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Press Release</strong></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Date: September 13, 2011<br></br>Contact: Roger Buchholtz, MI FairTax Association President<br></br>Phone: 269 345-0950<br></br>For Immediate Release<br></br><br></br>Romney Misstates FairTax Impact<br></br><br></br>Kalamazoo Sept.13, 2011- Because a politician or candidate says it, does not make it true. In a response to a question in the September 12 Republican presidential debate about the FairTax Mitt Romney stated…</p>
<p align="left"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Press Release</strong></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Date: September 13, 2011<br/>Contact: Roger Buchholtz, MI FairTax Association President<br/>Phone: 269 345-0950<br/>For Immediate Release<br/><br/>Romney Misstates FairTax Impact<br/><br/>Kalamazoo Sept.13, 2011- Because a politician or candidate says it, does not make it true. In a response to a question in the September 12 Republican presidential debate about the FairTax Mitt Romney stated that the FairTax will help the rich and poor but hurt the middle class. Because the question was asked only of Mitt Romney, no other candidate had the opportunity to respond to Romney’s statement and the public was left with only the unsubstantiated statement by Romney.<br/><br/>Some of America’s brightest economists have conducted studies on the FairTax that show that Americans of every income level and family status fare better under the FairTax than under the current income tax system. There is no study by any reputable economist that shows otherwise. <br/><br/>In hearings held this past August by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee, testimony was presented by economists Dr. Laurence Kotlikoff (Boston University) and Dr. David Tuerck (Beacon Hill Institute) that the FairTax will benefit all Americans by rapidly growing the economy and creating jobs in the U.S. for Americans. <br/><br/>Politicians and candidates making unsubstantiated statements do a disservice to the American public by misleading them, thereby leaving the public in the position of having to make decisions with false information. In the event that Mr. Romney has some evidence to substantiate his claim, the Michigan FairTax Association would like to know of it so as to determine its validity.<br/><br/>To view the studies and to learn about the FairTax go to <a href="http://www.fairtax.org">www.fairtax.org</a>.<br/><br/>###</p>
<p> </p>Update: FairTax Hearing in House Ways and Means Committeetag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2011-07-25:2636007:BlogPost:1462942011-07-25T04:19:57.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div><font color="#000000" face="Arial" size="2">These are exciting days for FairTax. <br></br>The House Ways and Means Committee has taken up consumption taxes by holding two <br></br>panels one on FairTax HR 25 and the other on the VAT. (As of today there is no <br></br>bill in the House proposing a VAT)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000" face="Arial" size="2">The Democratic minority have invited Mr. Bruce Bartlett to speak in opposition to the <br></br>FairTax. My understanding is Bruce Bartlett has no…</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#000000">These are exciting days for FairTax. <br/>The House Ways and Means Committee has taken up consumption taxes by holding two <br/>panels one on FairTax HR 25 and the other on the VAT. (As of today there is no <br/>bill in the House proposing a VAT)</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#000000">The Democratic minority have invited Mr. Bruce Bartlett to speak in opposition to the <br/>FairTax. My understanding is Bruce Bartlett has no formal economic training. He <br/>has a masters degree in history and his graduate paper was on the culpability of <br/>the U.S. in starting WWII.<br/> <br/>
Dr. David Tuerck and Dr. Laurence J. Kotlikoff will speak on behalf of the <br/>FairTax. Both have already written papers debunking Bruce Bartlett's <br/>claims.<br/>
<img src="http://l.yimg.com/kq/static/images/yg/img/doc/generic16x16.gif" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/2650613/1379407702/name/Tureck%27sRebuttal%20of%20Bartlett.pdf" title="http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/2650613/1379407702/name/Tureck'sRebuttal of Bartlett.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;">Tureck'sRebuttal of Bartlett.pdf</a></font></div>
<div><div class="file-row" style="white-space: nowrap;"><div class="ygrp-file-title"><img src="http://l.yimg.com/kq/static/images/yg/img/doc/generic16x16.gif" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/2650613/1219797206/name/Kotlikoff%27sRebuttalof%20Bartlett.pdf" title="http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/2650613/1219797206/name/Kotlikoff'sRebuttalof Bartlett.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;">Kotlikoff'sRebuttalof Bartlett.pdf</a></div>
</div>
<div class="file-row" style="white-space: nowrap;"><div class="ygrp-file-title"><img src="http://l.yimg.com/kq/static/images/yg/img/doc/generic16x16.gif" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/2650613/535712116/name/Kotlikoff-Democrats%20Should%20Love%20the%20FairTax.doc" title="http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/2650613/535712116/name/Kotlikoff-Democrats Should Love the FairTax.doc" style="text-decoration: none;">Kotlikoff-Democrats Should Love the <br/>FairTax.doc</a></div>
<div class="ygrp-file-title">Mike Huckabee will also be testifying on behalf of the FairTax.</div>
<div class="ygrp-file-title"></div>
<div class="ygrp-file-title">Details on the hearing FairTax hearing below. Please <br/>submit your comments on the FairTax and/or VAT using the link at the bottom of <br/>the page. Remember your comments will be part of the public record. <br/><br/><br/>Thank you to the volunteers who have contacted the members of the House <br/>Ways & Means Committee to invite them to attend the hearing! I believe that <br/>each member of the committee has been contacted by a volunteer from FairTax at <br/>least once.<br/><br/><strong>The hearing is only the beginning! We need to make sure we</strong> <br/><strong>follow up on this hearing and the others to follow. As you know FairTaxers will</strong> <br/><strong>be in Washington DC this week personally visiting congressional offices, talking</strong> <br/><strong>to Congressmen and staff during Storm the Hill. Monday is the last day to secure</strong> <br/><strong>tickets for the special FairTax tour of the capital if you wish to participate</strong> <br/><strong>in this special event. Details on <a href="http://www.fairtaxnation.com/" title="http://www.fairtaxnation.com/">www.FairTaxNation.com</a></strong> <br/><br/><span style="text-decoration: underline;">We need your help! Please call, fax, visit your local Congressional offices this week</span> <br/><span style="text-decoration: underline;">and ask your Congressman to cosponsor the FairTax. Phone lines into Washington</span> <br/><span style="text-decoration: underline;">DC have been jammed with debt ceiling concerns and other topics so your best</span> <br/><span style="text-decoration: underline;">option my be to call local offices.</span> <br/><br/>Questions? Just ask!<br/><br/>Marilyn <br/>Rickert<br/><br/>Jul 26, 2011<br/><br/>Focus Of The Hearing:<br/>The hearing will <br/>consider separately two different consumption tax models. One panel will examine <br/>the advantages and disadvantages of a VAT, whether as a supplement to or full <br/>replacement for existing taxes. Another panel will discuss the policy arguments <br/>for and against adopting the FairTax as a replacement for existing federal <br/>taxes. The hearing will explore the economic impact of consumption tax systems, <br/>as well as issues surrounding administration and compliance.<br/><br/>Hearing <br/>Advisory: <br/>Camp Announces Hearing on Tax Reform and Consumption-Based Tax <br/>Systems<br/>Witness List:<br/><br/>Please note that start time and order of panels <br/>are subject to change to accommodate witness travel schedules. In view of the <br/>limited time available to hear witnesses, oral testimony at this hearing will be <br/>from invited witnesses only. However, any individual or organization not <br/>scheduled for an oral appearance may submit, in accordance with the procedure <br/>outlined in the hearing advisory, a written statement for consideration by the <br/>Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing. <br/><br/><br/><br/>PANEL (FairTax): <br/><br/>Mr. Mike Huckabee<br/>former Governor of <br/>Arkansas<br/><br/>Dr. Laurence J. Kotlikoff<br/>Professor of Economics, Boston <br/>University, Boston, MA; accompanied by Dr. David Tuerck,<br/>Executive Director, <br/>The Beacon Hill Institute, Professor and Chairman, Department of<br/>Economics, <br/>Suffolk University<br/><br/>Mr. Bruce Bartlett<br/>Columnist, Tax Notes, The Fiscal <br/>Times, Contributor, The New York Times<br/><br/>PANEL (Value Added Tax): <br/><br/><br/>Mr. Michael J. Graetz<br/>Columbia Alumni Professor of Tax Law, Columbia <br/>University<br/><br/>Dr. Rosanne Altshuler<br/>Professor and Chair, Economics <br/>Department, Rutgers University, New <br/><br/>Dr. Robert J. Carroll, Ernst & <br/>Young LLP<br/><br/>Mr. Jim White, Director<br/>Tax Issues, Government <br/>Accountability Office<br/><br/>Dr. Daniel J. Mitchell<br/>Senior Fellow, Cato <br/>Institute<br/><br/>Dr. Simon Johnson<br/>Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of <br/>Entrepreneurship, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of <br/>Technology, former Economic Counselor and Director of the Research Department at <br/>the International Monetary Fund<br/><br/>Submissions: <br/>Click here to provide a <br/>submission for the record</div>
<div class="ygrp-file-title"><p>Visit FairTax Nation at: <a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network" title="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network">http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network</a></p>
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</div>Chart comparing the current income tax, FairTax, andtag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2011-06-11:2636007:BlogPost:1426562011-06-11T14:18:53.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div><a href="http://www.fairtax.org/PDF/FairTaxflattaxincometaxcomparisonchart4-26-11.pdf">http://www.fairtax.org/PDF/FairTaxflattaxincometaxcomparisonchart4-26-11.pdf</a></div>
<div><a href="http://www.fairtax.org/PDF/FairTaxflattaxincometaxcomparisonchart4-26-11.pdf">http://www.fairtax.org/PDF/FairTaxflattaxincometaxcomparisonchart4-26-11.pdf</a></div>Response to those who say FairTax unconstitutionaltag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2011-04-05:2636007:BlogPost:1351312011-04-05T02:00:08.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
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</span><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><font color="#000099" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b>FairTaxers:…</b></font></span></div>
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</span><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" color="#000099"><b>FairTaxers:</b></font></span></div>
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<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" color="#000099"><b>I have seen some information posted in a various places (including some tea party type sites) that the FairTax is unconstitutional. Here are the basics from the Constitution regarding taxation. The language in section 9 about<u>direct taxes</u> does not apply to the FairTax because the FairTax is an an<u> indirect</u> tax. Below I have a quote from a CBO paper defining it as an indirect tax. </b></font></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" color="#000099"><b><br/></b></font></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" color="#000099"><b>Karen Walby, Ph.D.</b></font></span></div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" color="#000099"><b><a target="_blank" href="http://fairtax.org/">FairTax.org</a></b></font></span></div>
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<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><b><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">The US Constitution sets forth only a few criteria regarding taxation. </font></b></span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">Section 8, Clause 1 states that “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and <b>Excises shall be uniform</b> throughout the United States.” Section 9, Clause 5 states that “<b>No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State</b>.” . </font></span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">The FairTax is by definition a form of excise tax (see the definition of excise tax below) so it meets the first criteria of the type of taxes that Congress can levy. </font><span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">Since the FairTax rate and definition of the tax base would be the same in every state, it meets the second criteria that excises shall be uniform throughout the United States. In addition, the FairTax does not tax exports. Therefore, the FairTax appears to meet both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution, and would therefore be in compliance with the Constitution.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">In the case of the income tax, it is a different story. <b>Section 9</b> states that “<b>No Capitation, or other direct, Tax</b> shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.” The income tax is a direct tax, but the only direct tax that the Constitution allows would be one that is based on the population, for example, what is known as a “head tax”, i.e. so much money per person. That is why the 16th amendment was necessary. </font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">Definition of excise taxes:</font></b></p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">Excise taxes are categorized into two categories by their structures: (1) Ad Valorem - A fixed percentage charged on a particular good or service. These are normally referred to as sales taxes. This is what the FairTax is. (2) Specific - A fixed dollar amount dependent upon the quantity purchased. Today, these are still referred to as excise taxes, i.e. so many cents per gallon of gas. </font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">[</font>“An <b>indirect consumption tax</b> in which the base consists of the sales of businesses to non-businesses (a value-added tax or the retail sales tax)” <span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Quote from Congressional Budget Office paper, “Comparing Income and Consumption Tax Bases,” July 1997, page 37.</span> </b></span></p>
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<h2 style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br/></span></h2>
<h2 style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Excerpts from the US Constitution related to taxation powers of federal government.</span></h2>
<h2 style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">Article. I.</font></span></h2>
<h3 style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">Section. 2.</font></h3>
<h3 style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" size="2"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Clause 3: Representatives and </span>direct Taxes<span style="font-weight: normal;"> shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.</span></font></h3>
<h3 style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">Section. 8.</font></h3>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">Clause 1: The <b>Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes</b>, Duties, Imposts and <b>Excises</b>, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and <b>Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; [The FairTax is uniform throughout the US.]</b></font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">Section. 9.</font></b></p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">Clause 4: <b>No Capitation, or other direct, Tax </b>shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken. </font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">Clause 5: No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State<b>. [The FairTax does not tax exports. It only taxes goods/services consumed in the United States.]</b></font></p>
<h2 style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">16<sup>th</sup> Amendment</font></span></h2>
<p style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. <b>[This is further evidence that an income tax is a direct tax; a consumption tax is an indirect tax, it is not levied directly on the individual himself or herself but only indirectly as the individual consumes.]</b></font></p>
<font face="arial, sans-serif" class="Apple">-- </font><br/><font face="arial, sans-serif" class="Apple">Karen Walby, Ph.D.</font><br/><font face="arial, sans-serif" class="Apple">Consultant</font><br/><br/>Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? Steve Bierfeldt, Pete Sepp, Daniel J. Mitchell, Rep Steve Kingtag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2011-04-04:2636007:BlogPost:1350712011-04-04T12:38:47.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? Steve Bierfeldt, Pete Sepp, Daniel J. Mitchell, Rep Steve King</strong></span></div>
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<div>Watch the entire tax panel by clicking on the links below:</div>
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<div><div><span class="long" dir="ltr" id="eow-title" title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1"><font size="4">Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC…</font></span></div>
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<div><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? Steve Bierfeldt, Pete Sepp, Daniel J. Mitchell, Rep Steve King</strong></span></div>
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<div>Watch the entire tax panel by clicking on the links below:</div>
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<div><div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" id="eow-title" dir="ltr"><font size="4">Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1</font></span></div>
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<div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3WTuDmyYX8&feature=related"><font size="3" color="#2E5F87">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3WTuDmyYX8&feature=related</font></a></span></div>
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<div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" dir="ltr"><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.2" class="long" id="eow-title" dir="ltr"><font size="4">Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.2</font></span></span></div>
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<div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3pnx1Rk2oY&feature=related"><font size="3" color="#2E5F87">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3pnx1Rk2oY&feature=related</font></a></span></div>
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<div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" dir="ltr"><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.3" class="long" id="eow-title" dir="ltr"><font size="4">Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.3</font></span></span></div>
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<div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWYyJgAywDc&feature=related"><font size="3" color="#2E5F87">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWYyJgAywDc&feature=related</font></a></span></div>
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<div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" dir="ltr"><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.4" class="long" id="eow-title" dir="ltr"><font size="4">Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.4</font></span></span></div>
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<div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XuRDXKVLNw&feature=related"><font size="3" color="#2E5F87">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XuRDXKVLNw&feature=related</font></a></span></div>
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<div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" dir="ltr"><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.5" class="long" id="eow-title" dir="ltr"><font size="4">Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.5</font></span></span></div>
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<div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEJGurRtTuQ&feature=related"><font size="3" color="#2E5F87">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEJGurRtTuQ&feature=related</font></a></span></div>
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<div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" dir="ltr"><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.6" class="long" id="eow-title" dir="ltr"><font size="4">Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.6</font></span></span></div>
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<div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqd2GIiGR8E&feature=related"><font size="3" color="#2E5F87">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqd2GIiGR8E&feature=related</font></a></span></div>
</div>FairTax Townhall eventtag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2011-03-22:2636007:BlogPost:1329862011-03-22T18:10:30.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<font color="#000000" face="Arial" id="role_document" size="2"> <br />
</font><div><font color="#000000" face="Arial" id="role_document" size="2"></font><div><font color="#000000" face="Arial" id="role_document" size="2"><b>FOR IMMEDIATE </b><span style="background-color: #5485bd;"><b>RELEASE</b></span></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000" face="Arial" id="role_document" size="2"> </font></div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><font color="#000000" face="Arial" id="role_document" size="2">John…</font></div>
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</font><div><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#000000" id="role_document"></font><div><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#000000" id="role_document"><b>FOR IMMEDIATE </b><span style="background-color: #5485bd;"><b>RELEASE</b></span></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#000000" id="role_document"> </font></div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#000000" id="role_document">John Linder, Author and Congressman, to Join FairTax Town Hall</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#000000" id="role_document"></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#000000" id="role_document"><b>Daytona Beach, FL </b> Embry Riddle Aeronautical University's President's Speakers Series has scheduled its 18th Town Hall with the topic of FairTax, HR25/S13; it is the 61st Town Hall for WNDB AM1150 where the Town Hall will be broadcast live on radio and internet. A panel of experts will convene to discuss FairTax, its benefits and its challenges. The Town Hall is on April 7th at 7:00 pm.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#000000" id="role_document">John Linder, retired Congressman from Georgia, will sit on the FairTax Town Hall expert panel. Mr. Linder was the original sponsor of the FairTax legislation in 1999; he co-authored <u>The FairTax Book</u> and <u>FairTax: The Truth</u>.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#000000" id="role_document"></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#000000" id="role_document">Steven Hayes, FairTax National Spokesman and Florida FairTax Educational Association (FFTEA) Board Member, is also part of the panel. <span style="border-collapse: separate;"><span style="font-size: small;"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Mr. Hayes worked as a tax attorney; he has testified before the House Ways And Means Committee and Jack Kemp's Tax Reform Committee.</font></span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">He has </font></span>been involved for over 20 years in working to replace the income tax with a national retail sales tax. </font></div>
<div><span style="font-size: small;"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br/></font></span></span></font></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: small;"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">"Tax reform is a huge topic right now," says Marc Bernier, Town Hall moderator, </font></span>Special Assistant to the President for Government and Community Affairs and host of the Marc Bernier Radio Show on WNDB AM1150 weekdays from 3-6pm. "Thanks to Embry Riddle for hosting this FairTax Town Hall allowing for some candid tax talk with nationally known experts. John Linder used to be a fixture on the Marc Bernier Radio Show and I'm happy to finally have him live in Daytona Beach."</div>
<div>FairTax, HR25/S13 is a bill in Congress with 57+ co-sponsors. The legislation replaces the current income tax system with a consumption tax system. The FairTax idea has been gaining momentum in grassroots circles and some claim it is the answer to America's economic issues. </div>
<div><div>The FairTax Town Hall will be held in the Gale Lemerand Auditorium inside the Willie Miller Instructional Center on the campus of Embry Riddle at 7pm on April 7th. <a target="_blank"><font color="#000000" class="Apple">www.ERAU.edu</font></a> Listen on AM1150 WNDB or online <a target="_blank"><font color="#000000" class="Apple">www.WNDB.am</font></a></div>
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<div>Contact</div>
<div><div>Marc Bernier</div>
<div>Marc@MarcBernierShow.com</div>
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<div style="color: #500050;"><div><font color="#000000" class="Apple">Kristina Bouterse</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000" class="Apple">386-986-7215</font></div>
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<div style="height: 0px; color: #fff;">__._,_.___</div>Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax --Feb. 2011tag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2011-03-21:2636007:BlogPost:1330682011-03-21T05:07:33.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div><span class="long" dir="ltr" id="eow-title" title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1"><font size="4">Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1</font></span></div>
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<div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" id="eow-title" dir="ltr"><font size="4">Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1</font></span></div>
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<div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" dir="ltr"><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.6" class="long" id="eow-title" dir="ltr"><font size="4">Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.6</font></span></span></div>
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<div><span title="Flat, Fair, VAT, or Gone? What Shloud be done with the Federal Income Tax- CPAC 2011 Pt.1" class="long" dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqd2GIiGR8E&feature=related"><font size="3">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqd2GIiGR8E&feature=related</font></a></span></div>Testimony of Karen Walby, Ph.D. House Ways&Means committee 1/20/2011tag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2011-01-29:2636007:BlogPost:1298322011-01-29T19:25:09.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<p align="center"><b>Testimony of</b></p>
<p align="center"><b>Karen Walby, Ph.D.</b></p>
<p align="center"><b>Chief Economist</b></p>
<p align="center"><b>Americans For Fair Taxation</b></p>
<p align="center"><b> </b></p>
<p align="center"><b>Before the</b></p>
<p align="center"><b>House Committee on Ways and Means</b></p>
<p align="center"><b>Hearing on Fundamental Tax Reform</b></p>
<p align="center"><b> </b></p>
<p align="center"><b>January 20,…</b></p>
<p align="center"><b>Testimony of</b></p>
<p align="center"><b>Karen Walby, Ph.D.</b></p>
<p align="center"><b>Chief Economist</b></p>
<p align="center"><b>Americans For Fair Taxation</b></p>
<p align="center"><b> </b></p>
<p align="center"><b>Before the</b></p>
<p align="center"><b>House Committee on Ways and Means</b></p>
<p align="center"><b>Hearing on Fundamental Tax Reform</b></p>
<p align="center"><b> </b></p>
<p align="center"><b>January 20, 2011</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b><i>Chairman Camp, Ranking Member Levin, and Members of the Committee on Ways and Means:</i></b></p>
<p>The Americans for Fair Taxation (Fairtax.org) welcome the chance to submit this written testimony for the Committee’s first tax reform hearing. We understand that this initial hearing will examine the economic and administrative burdens imposed by the current structure of the Federal income tax. Specifically, it will explore:</p>
<ul>
<li>the cost of complexity borne by American families,</li>
<li>the cost of a corporate tax system that is increasingly out-of-step with the rest of the world, and</li>
<li>the broader cost to the U.S. economy of a tax system that fails to maximize job creation and impedes economic growth. </li>
</ul>
<p>With more than 600,000 supporters, Fairtax.org is the nation’s largest grass roots citizens’ organization dedicated to fundamental tax reform. As a nonpartisan organization, we have engaged some of the nation’s leading scholars and tax policy analysts to explore the infirmities of the existing system and the best means of correcting them. The product of our effort is the FairTax, which has been introduced by Representative Rob Woodall as H.R. 25 and in the Senate as S 13 by Senator Saxby Chambliss. The House bill now has 54 cosponsors and the Senate bill has 5. With the benefit of our research and our efforts towards fundamental tax reform, we respectfully offer the following insights within the narrow scope of this hearing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>The FairTax Act of 2011 (H.R. 25)</b> is comprehensive legislation that replaces all federal income and payroll taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a rebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue replacement, and, through companion legislation (H.R. 16), repeal of the 16<sup>th</sup> Amendment. The FairTax abolishes all federal personal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, self-employment, and corporate taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, single-rate federal retail sales tax – collected and administered in cooperation with the federal government by existing state sales tax authorities. The FairTax is a fair, efficient, transparent, and greatly reduces tax code complexity, compliance costs, and noncompliance. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>The very nature of the income tax breeds complexity<i>.</i></b></p>
<p>In the long-running experiment of the income tax, it is fairly well demonstrated that it is the nature of the income tax that breeds complexity. No one political party can assign blame or take credit: The nature of the income tax as a hidden tax invites complexity through special-interest provisions. The constantly growing complexity of our tax system is part of a trend that began in 1913 and has only accelerated with the nearly perennial enactment of new tax legislation with 4,428 changes to the tax code in just the last decade. In 2010 alone there were 579 changes, more than one per day!<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn1">[1]</a> The continuous tinkering with the tax code has resulted in tripling the length of the tax code, now a mind-boggling 3.8 million words.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn2">[2]</a> The combined federal income tax code, regulations, and IRS rulings have grown from 14,000 pages in 1954 to 70,320 pages by 2009 – an increase of 502 percent.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The legendary complexity of the income tax has worsened each year through successive enactments of legislation. In 1927, the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation (Vol. 1, p. 5) reported that, "It must be recognized that while a degree of simplification is possible, a simple income tax for complex business is not.” The 1927 staff recognized that at its core, income tax complexity was almost wholly related to tax base questions – that is, questions or uncertainty about the timing or definition of taxable transactions. The inherent complexity of an income tax results from the difficulty of defining income, in determining whose income and expenses, and determining what tax year applies for tax reporting purposes. Over time, the political process of give-and-take has made these difficult tax base questions inordinately complex. The definition of taxable income has not only expanded dramatically, but it has undergone chronic change. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Complexity can be seen in the growth in the number of returns, penalties, and even the IRS budget. To take a static figure, consider the sheer volume of returns. In 2009, the total number of U.S. returns was 236.5 million, excluding informational returns. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The number of penalties provides another good measurement of the complexity and cost. In 2003, Americans were assessed 36,228,339 civil penalties (26.4 million for the individual income tax alone). The corporate income tax required the issuance of 970,098 penalties and the employment tax had 7,918,580 penalties issued to businesses that employ people. To administer the tax laws, the IRS directly employs about one hundred thousand employees. The IRS budget is about $11.7 billion outstripping growth in the economy and the population.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn3">[3]</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>To most Americans, the direct expenses of the IRS or abstract measurements are not the central compliance problem. Most important is the mandate imposed on the American taxpayer to act as tax collector. According to an analysis of IRS data by the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), individual taxpayers and businesses spend an estimated 6.1 billion hours each year complying with the filing requirements of the Internal Revenue Code (henceforth called “compliance costs”). The Tax Foundation estimated compliance costs to exceed $265 billion. This amounts to imposing a 22.2-cent tax compliance surcharge for every dollar the income tax system collects. By 2015, compliance costs are expected to grow to $482.7 billion<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn4">[4]</a> To put the tax compliance burden into perspective, the more than $265 billion tax surcharge is greater than the combined revenue of Sears, Walt Disney, Microsoft, Rite Aid, and McDonald’s. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Small firms bear the lion’s share of these fixed costs that stem from paperwork and record keeping, tracking wages, and interpreting the law – costs which, while disproportionately falling upon them, cannot be passed along. Small firms in particular, according to the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, are forced to waste 3 to 4 dollars complying with the law for every dollar they pay in taxes.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Paperwork is the most visible compliance cost, but it is clearly not the only cost, and perhaps not the largest cost. Return processing, determining liability, record keeping, and other burdens are an estimated 13 to 22 percent of the total revenue raised by the income tax system. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The monetary cost of compliance with the income tax code is only half of the problem. We pay for our income tax system in equally wasteful ways. The income tax is collected with a heavy hand and much contention. In 2009, our government has embroiled its citizens in more than 71,705 litigation actions, with 75 percent of them involving small businesses.<sup> </sup> Taxpayers sustained more than 3 million levies.</p>
<p><b><i> </i></b></p>
<p> Another measure of complexity is shown by looking at the record of the IRS’s own centers established to help people prepare their tax returns. According to the Taxpayer Advocate Service, the IRS received 110 million calls in each of the last two fiscal years; 25 percent of which the IRS was unable to answer. In addition to the telephone calls, the IRS must process more than 11 million pieces of taxpayer correspondence annually. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The efficiency costs of the federal tax system dwarf compliance costs. Efficiency costs occur when tax rules distort the decisions of individuals and businesses regarding work, savings, consumption, and investment. By changing the relative attractiveness of highly taxed and lightly taxed activities, taxes alter decisions such as what to consume and how to invest. When taxpayers alter their behavior in response to tax rules, they often end up with a combination of consumption and leisure that they value less than the combination they could have achieved if they made decisions free of any tax influences. This reduction in value is a welfare loss or efficiency cost. According to research by the Government Accountability Office, efficiency costs are on the order of magnitude of two to five percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn5">[5]</a> Based on GDP of $14.119 trillion in 2009, efficiency costs are an additional $282 to $706 billion.</p>
<p><br/><b>All of that</b> <b>complexity disappears with the FairTax<i>.</i></b></p>
<p>With a national retail sales tax, the Tax Foundation, the oldest national tax research organization, has estimated that compliance costs drop more than 90 percent.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn6">[6]</a> Anyone who professes to despise the complexity of the income tax should embrace the FairTax. No other tax reform plan would eliminate wasteful compliance costs quite like the FairTax. By imposing taxes at the cash register, the FairTax wholly exempts individuals from ever having to file another tax return. The FairTax taxes only final consumption making business-to-business transactions fully exempt; thus, businesses that serve other businesses will neither collect nor pay taxes. Sellers of retail goods and services, most of which already pay state sales taxes (in the 45 states that have them) are provided an administrative credit compensating them for the costs of sales tax compliance. The self-employed engaged in providing goods and services for final consumption are the only individuals that would have to file tax returns. The FairTax reduces the more than 700 incomprehensible sections of the Internal Revenue Code to one simple question. As all goods and services for final consumption are taxable, the retailer need answer only “how much did I sell to consumers?” The twin advantages of simplicity and visibility produce another benefit: Greater enforceability with less intrusiveness. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>In fact, it is this simplicity that recommends the FairTax over the flat tax. For example, the populist appeal of the flat tax is mostly in simplified returns, but the flat tax ends up with a slightly more simplified tax return than the current 1040 EZ for individuals. Income still must be tracked and reported; indeed, one must continue to determine taxable income. Both individuals and businesses must file returns. Although the flat tax would be simpler than the current tax system, it would require overlapping tax systems with state sales tax laws and therefore would not be harmonized with state law. The fear that the tax would eventually revert to an income tax system or complexity would remain. Under the FairTax, there is no need to track income and expenses, no need for an IRS, and a high probability the tax will stay simple, since sales taxes are by their nature single rate taxes, and cannot be reverted to an income tax (as it repeals the income tax code and has companion legislation to repeal the 16<sup>th</sup> amendment).</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>Compliance rates are a function of enforcement costs, and those costs are at their limit<i>.</i></b></p>
<p>Compliance is, in truth, a relativistic notion that compares the rate of voluntary payment of taxes to the costs imposed on taxpayers to make those taxpayers acquiesce, conform, or yield. To understand this relationship in the extreme, consider how we may be able to achieve an acceptable compliance rate, even if a tax system is widely viewed as unfair – such as a <i>per capita</i> tax – if we were only willing to impose enough penalties at a high rate, take away civil liberties, require enough substantiation, or provide enough resources for detection. </p>
<p> </p>
<p> If we were to try to reduce the interrelationship between compliance and enforcement to a very simple balancing act, we might express our goal for the tax system as trying to minimize one function (compliance costs) at the same time we maximize another (the voluntary compliance rate). Then, in optimizing the compliance rate, we would choose a system for which the voluntary compliance payment rate is acceptably high relative to the costs required to obtain that compliance. Hence, as policymakers evaluate our current system and various reform initiatives, they must do so within a framework that takes into account how much revenue the current system raises as a function of the costs to maintain that system.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> You can begin to understand how poorly the current system achieves its compliance rate by comparing the compliance rate to the high administrative and, more importantly, compliance costs (see below). And it can only speak about compliance if it recognizes that the correct manner of viewing compliance is as a function of compliance and administrative costs.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> Compliance costs are at an all-time high and dwarf the administrative costs of the IRS. The tax gap is a major, continuing and growing problem which is getting worse, notwithstanding a much larger Internal Revenue Service (IRS), more burdensome information reporting requirements, increasingly stiff and numerous penalties and a host of legislative initiatives. The current system requires taxpayers not only to absorb substantial cost but also to lose fundamental civil liberties. Further escalation of compliance costs may actually spawn further noncompliance. As the GAO has stated, “…some of the ‘tax gap’ may not be collectible at an acceptable cost. Such collection might require either more intrusive record keeping or reporting than the public is willing to accept or more resources than IRS can commit.”<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn7">[7]</a> Despite this poor compliance rate, we may have reached the limits of what we are willing to pay in monetary and non-monetary costs to increase compliance. In a report on the tax gap, the General Accounting Office stated:</p>
<p class="WW"> </p>
<p class="WW">Almost every year since 1981 has witnessed legislation to address tax gap issues. These legislative actions generally required information returns [1099’s] reporting on income and deductions, imposed penalties for tax noncompliance, or reduced opportunity for noncompliance by eliminating certain tax write-offs. [The] IRS estimated that some of these provisions resulted in additional 1990 tax revenue of $3.4 billion. Even so, [the] IRS' estimated tax gap increased $50.7 billion in current dollars from tax years 1981 to 1992.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn8">[8]</a> </p>
<p><i> </i></p>
<p>With more than 3 billion informational returns filed and roughly 36 million civil penalties assessed each year,<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn9">[9]</a> there is little question that the FairTax plan would inspire greater compliance at lower cost.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>The FairTax: Higher compliance rates at lower cost</b></p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>Empirical evidence: State sales taxes are enforced at an equal or higher compliance rate than the income tax with lower overall administrative and compliance cost<i>.</i></b></p>
<p>One means of looking at the possible compliance rate of the FairTax is to compare relative compliance rates of various tax policies with the administrative and compliance costs of those forms of taxation.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn10">[10]</a> Researchers have found the administrative costs of state sales tax vary as a percent of revenue received from between 0.4 and 1.0 percent, and average 0.7 percent of revenues received.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn11">[11]</a> The compliance costs imposed on businesses from state sales taxes have been estimated to fall between 2.0 and 3.8 percent of revenues.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn12">[12]</a> Based on similar methodology, researchers have estimated that the costs to comply with a national sales tax would be as low as 1.0 percent of collections, compared with the flat tax at 1.2 percent of collections and a consumed-income tax at 4.6 percent of collections.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn13">[13]</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The cost to collect federal individual and corporate income taxes has been estimated as 9 percent of revenues in 1995 by income tax supporters.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn14">[14]</a> But actual costs of collection are probably much higher. If compliance costs were estimated to be $200 billion, then to collect $990.2 billion of individual taxes collected in FY 2004, the costs of collection would be 20 cents on the dollar. If we assume those compliance costs against the full $1,952,929,045 of collections, the collection costs would still be 10 cents on the dollar. This is roughly what the Tax Foundation found. They stated, “In 2002 individuals, businesses and non-profits will spend an estimated 6.0 billion hours complying with the federal income tax code (henceforth called ‘compliance costs’), with an estimated compliance cost of over $265 billion. This amounts to imposing a 22.2-cent tax compliance surcharge for every dollar the income tax system collects.” <a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn15">[15]</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Not only are the administrative and compliance costs of a sales tax much lower than an income tax per dollar of revenue received, the compliance rate is higher. A Minnesota study in the year 2000 compared input-output data to taxable sales and estimated how much tax should have been collected. The difference between estimated and actual collections was 9.9 percent. The sales tax gap was therefore an estimated 9.9 percent in Minnesota. This compares favorably to a federal tax compliance gap (and therefore a state income tax compliance gap) nearly double that amount, despite the imposition of much higher administrative and compliance costs. Overall, the noncompliance rate is from 15 percent to 16.6 percent of the true tax liability, according to the IRS, and that same rate of noncompliance can be expected to apply to the state tax system that relies on the federal enforcement apparatus.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn16">[16]</a> In the broadest aggregate, assuming the gap of $353 billion, gross noncompliance is about 18 percent of revenues.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn17">[17]</a> The evidence at the state level suggests sales taxes – even those at the state level that are largely very complicated and which cascade – have twice the compliance rate of the income tax at a fraction of the cost.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The FairTax would be a much more efficient taxation system from the point of view of the administration, collection, and filing costs that it would bring about when compared to the administration, collection, and filing costs of the current tax system it replaces. A study by Beacon Hill Institute, found that the FairTax saves $346.5 billion in administrative costs in 2005 when compared to the administrative costs of the current federal tax system it replaces. This implies a saving of $14.70 per $100 of the gross revenue the FairTax would collect. We find these estimates robust enough to ensure that even if any additional spending were needed under the FairTax to hold avoidance and evasion to their current levels; this increased spending would never overcome the savings the FairTax brings when compared to the current taxation system. <a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn18">[18]</a> </p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b>The tax gap not attributable to fraud will clearly improve through the FairTax’s simplification of the system<i>.</i></b></p>
<p>To understand how a simple plan reduces the tax gap, policymakers must distinguish between two components of the tax gap: Fraud and non-fraud contributions.<b><i> </i></b> There are, in effect, two distinct components of the tax gap. The tax gap is certainly comprised of taxes not voluntarily paid because the taxpayer violated a known legal duty (evasion), but it is also comprised of failures to pay that are unintentional, such as those caused by mathematical errors or confusion. The tax gap is at the same time a measure of the burden and frustration of taxpayers who want to comply but are tripped by tax code complexity and of willful tax cheating by a minority who want the benefits of government services without paying their fair share.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn19">[19]</a> </p>
<p> </p>
<p class="WW"> The portion of the tax gap attributable to mistake and confusion is high, as high as 80 percent. Almost 40 percent of the public, according to the IRS, is out of compliance with the current tax system, some unintentionally due to its enormous complexity. Periodically, the IRS conducts a series of extremely intrusive audits of taxpayers selected at random and requires those taxpayers to document every item on their tax return to the minutest detail. These audits are part of the Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program or TCMP. The 1988 TCMP statistical sample included audits of over 54,000 individual taxpayers, theoretically representing 104 million taxpayers. TCMP data showed that if all 104 million taxpayers had been audited, 42 million (40 percent) of them would have seen increases in their tax liabilities.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn20">[20]</a></p>
<p class="WW"> </p>
<p class="WW">The General Accounting Office, in its recent tax gap report said: “The TCMP data showed that an estimated 33 million of the 42 million taxpayers (82 percent) were not assessed a fraud or negligence penalty, suggesting that much of their noncompliance was unintentional.”</p>
<p class="WW"> </p>
<p>The reasons for noncompliance are instructive: (1) taxpayers lack the requisite knowledge of the tax law – of course, even tax lawyers and IRS agents cannot grasp the entire tax code these days; (2) taxpayers interpret the law differently than the IRS – but you can depend on the IRS to almost always make aggressive interpretations in favor of the government; (3) taxpayers lack record keeping sufficient to satisfy the IRS – this from an agency that has such poor internal records that it cannot even be audited; (4) taxpayers do their math wrong or they rely on professional return preparers who get it wrong – if professional tax preparers can’t get it right, how are ordinary Americans to do so?<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn21">[21]</a> The largest percentage increase in the tax gap from 1981 to 1992 was attributable to math errors, a 212.3 percent increase.</p>
<p> </p>
<p class="WW"> This portion of the tax gap attributable to confusion and mistakes is largely dependent on the number of taxpayers and the level of complexity, and both diminish under the FairTax. Under the Fair Tax, certain transactional areas still require special rules. For example, the treatment of financial intermediation services, the treatment of mixed-use property, and transitional considerations will add some complexity. However, when fully operational, the main decisional juncture is reduced to the analysis under one current code section – section 162. Was a purchase an "ordinary and necessary" business expense? Any tax system that does not seek to tax business inputs (meaning any well-considered tax system) must make this essential distinction. The FairTax need not make the tens of thousands of other distinctions we now draw in the code. In place of an almost incomprehensible regime of statutes and regulations, businesses will need to answer one question to determine the tax due: “How much was sold to consumers?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p> Furthermore, two other factors reduce this non-fraud component of the tax gap. The increased transparency of the system induces more compliance because it increases the likelihood that tax evasion is uncovered. The FairTax draws a clear line between cheating and innocent mistake, and eliminates the plausible deniability that taxpayers misunderstood the law. Few, if any, taxpayers will be confused by the FairTax requirements. Second, the roughly 90-percent reduction in filers enables tax administrators to address more effectively instances of noncompliance.</p>
<p><b><i> </i></b></p>
<p><b>The FairTax improves upon all known factors that bear upon compliance.</b></p>
<p>Even if we are looking at the portion of the tax gap attributable to fraud, the FairTax reduces the tax gap. To understand how it does so, policymakers need to look at the several factors that bear upon compliance – both fraud and non-fraud – from the scholarly research.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn22">[22]</a> The GAO has discussed some of these in Congressional testimony.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn23">[23]</a> The most important of these are as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li>the number of taxpayers;</li>
<li>the marginal tax rates;</li>
<li>the complexity of the system (already discussed);</li>
<li>the number of decisional junctures (opportunities for each taxpayer);</li>
<li>transparency or the risk of detection/ability to hide defalcation;</li>
<li>the magnitude of punishment if caught;</li>
<li>non-financial motivation to cheat (including perceptions of unfairness); and</li>
<li>enforcement resources and safeguards in place.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>An objective analysis of the FairTax demonstrates that it would have a higher compliance rate than current law (i.e., substantially reducing the current $345 billion “tax gap”<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn24">[24]</a>) – even with respect to those taxpayers who seek to intentionally violate a known legal duty – because it improves upon the following factors. </p>
<p> </p>
<p> First, the number of non-filers is reduced substantially. The General Accounting Office, among others, has specifically identified the inverse relationship between compliance costs and the number of focal points for collection. The number of filers by type of taxpayer demonstrates how few points of collection there would be under the FairTax. Individuals file 93.8 percent of income tax returns. Under the FairTax individual filers won’t exist, except for the self-employed engaged in selling goods or services to consumers. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Because the FairTax reduces the number of tax filers by at least 80 percent, as individuals are removed entirely from the tax system, enforcement authorities can catch cheats by monitoring far fewer taxpayers. Because the number of collection points is so much lower under the Fair Tax, if enforcement funding is held equal then the audit rate for potential evaders increases considerably and the likelihood of apprehension is correspondingly higher. The perception of risk as a deterrent should also increase commensurately. In other words, both the risk of detection and the risk-adjusted cost of evasion increase.</p>
<p> </p>
<p class="WW">It should be noted that income tax supporters make too much of the fact that a federal sales tax would place the responsibility for tax collection with the retailer, a sector of the economy in which small businesses are more represented. However, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), small firms only account for 14.9 percent of gross receipts by all retailers, wholesalers, and service providers.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn25">[25]</a> Since the gross receipts of wholesalers would not typically be subject to tax, the true scope of the small “problem” companies is smaller still.</p>
<p class="WW"> </p>
<p> And because the base is significantly greater, nearly all taxpayers experience lower marginal tax rates under a national sales tax than the income tax, including those with relatively modest incomes. Visibility of the transaction improves as well, and simplicity and visibility go hand in hand. Under the FairTax, it becomes quite transparent when someone is cheating as opposed to "gaming" the system. When a retailer fails to pay over trust funds, he does so at great peril and with the full knowledge that he is violating the law (i.e., committing evasion). Few excuses apply.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> Perception of the fairness of the tax system is increasingly regarded as an important consideration. Studies have persuasively shown that attitudes are important determinants of compliance. Complexity of the code is an important driver of noncompliance. Tax code complexity obscures understanding, with the result that taxpayers often have little idea of what they are paying. They worry that they are missing tax breaks while others are benefiting from too many breaks. Today, cheating is encouraged by the perception that one's neighbor is not paying his or her fair share. Under the FairTax, as the costs of compliance shrink and the perceived fairness of the tax system increases, much of that hostility to the tax system will disappear. In short, tax collectors could focus enforcement resources on far fewer taxpayers, using consistent and vastly simpler forms, with far fewer opportunities to cheat, diminished incentives to do so, and a far greater chance of getting caught if they do. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>The FairTax eliminates a major problem with non-filers<i>.</i></b></p>
<p>Today, an estimated 18 million wage-earning Americans have dropped out of the income tax system entirely as “non-filers.” As noted above, non-filers alone accounted for $30 billion of the tax gap in 2001, an increase of nearly 300 percent since 1992. Under the FairTax, nonbusiness non-filers find it very difficult to avoid the tax. This aspect of the underground economy is successfully taxed at the retail level under the FairTax.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>The Central Problem Ignored: Failure to Adopt a Border-Adjusted Tax System</b></p>
<p>The decline of U.S. manufacturing and the ascendancy of foreign competition have been due in large part to the failure of the U.S. to adopt a border-adjusted tax base. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><b><i>The current tax system subsidizes foreign producers and punishes our exports. </i></b> The U.S. should not target a particular trade deficit level, subsidize its exporters or impose tariffs on imports. By doing so, we would interfere with mutually beneficial transnational economic exchanges to the disadvantage of both countries’ economies. That is the very purpose for seeking to achieve the objectives of capital export and import neutrality.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn26">[26]</a> By the same token, however, the U.S. government should not accord a huge advantage to foreign companies competing in the U.S. market or impose a huge disadvantage on American producers and workers selling their goods and services in the U.S. and foreign markets – as we now do as a matter of policy.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b><i>The current tax system harms the competitiveness of domestic producers and workers.</i> </b> The U.S. tax system imposes heavy income and payroll taxes on U.S. workers and domestic producers whether their products are sold here or abroad. As noted, U.S. corporate taxes are the highest in the industrialized world, with a top corporate rate about nine percentage points higher than the OECD average.<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn27">[27]</a> At the same time, the U.S. tax system imposes no corresponding tax burden on foreign goods sold in the U.S. market. Moreover, foreign VATs, which are a major component of the total revenue raised elsewhere, are rebated when foreign goods are exported to the U.S. market. This creates a large and artificial relative price advantage for foreign goods, in both the U.S. market and abroad.</p>
<p align="center"><b> </b></p>
<p align="center"><b>Advantage for Foreign Producers</b></p>
<p align="center"><b> </b></p>
<div align="center"><table cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tbody><tr><td width="143"><p align="center"><b>Origin</b></p>
</td>
<td width="220"><p align="center"><b>Sold in U.S. market</b></p>
</td>
<td width="215"><p align="center"><b>Sold in foreign markets</b></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td width="143"><p>U.S. production</p>
</td>
<td width="220" valign="top"><p>Pays U.S. income and payroll taxes.</p>
</td>
<td width="215" valign="top"><p>Pays U.S. income and payroll taxes and foreign VAT.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td width="143"><p>Foreign production</p>
</td>
<td width="220" valign="top"><p>Pays no U.S. income or payroll tax and no foreign VAT.</p>
</td>
<td width="215" valign="top"><p>Pays foreign VAT.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>As the table above illustrates, American producers pay two sets of taxes when selling into foreign markets. Conversely, in U.S. markets, foreign goods bear no U.S. tax and the foreign VAT is forgiven. Thus, among the most manifest unfairness in the U.S. tax system is that it places U.S. producers – including businesses and workers in manufacturing, agriculture, mining, and forestry – at a large competitive disadvantage relative to their foreign competitors both in U.S. markets and in foreign markets. Our failure to counteract these border-adjusted taxes explicitly encourages consumption of foreign, rather than American, goods. And it converts many of our nation’s retailers into what are effectively tax-free trade zones for foreign produced goods.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Beyond any other plan, the FairTax solves the problem the Subcommittee ignored, by converting the entire U.S. tax base into a border-adjusted system. Through WTO legal means, the FairTax exempts exports from taxation, while taxing imports the same as U.S. produced goods for the first time. And it solves the problems the Subcommittee should be considering. It is the simplest plan that could be devised, without the intercompany (and intracompany) transfer pricing problems present in an origin-principle income or consumption tax. It reduces U.S. corporate rates to zero, ensuring the U.S. is the most competitive environment in which to produce and from which to export. And it would stimulate economic growth by broadening the tax base and reducing marginal rates well beyond any other proposal and do so in a way that does not tax the poor, punish savings and investment or tax income more than once. </p>
<p>In summing up, we quote the President of the National Small Business Association, “Our members choose the Fair Tax because it is the most efficient and least intrusive form of taxation. It would relieve small business owners from their current role as proxy federal tax collector for income taxes and payroll taxes. Those retail locations that did collect and remit sales taxes to the government would see their overall net tax paperwork burden vastly reduced. The Fair Tax would treat all forms of small business entity the same by eliminating the need for business owners to make the complex and costly choice of business entity for tax purposes.”<a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftn28">[28]</a> And, it would put American producers on an equal footing with their foreign competitors, fostering economic growth and job creation.</p>
<div><br clear="all"/><hr width="33%" size="1" align="left"/><div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref1">[1]</a> Taxpayer Advocate Service, 2010 Annual Report to Congress, “The Time for Tax Reform is Now,” Dec. 31, 2010, p. 4.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref2">[2]</a> <i>Ibid</i>.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref3">[3]</a> Penalty statistics are from the IRS Data Book, 2009.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref4">[4]</a> Moody, J. Scott, Wendy P. Warcholik, and Scott A. Hodge, “The Rising Cost of Complying with the Federal Income Tax,” Tax Foundation, Special Report No. 138, December 2005.</p>
<p> </p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref5">[5]</a> “Tax Policy: Summary of Estimates of the Costs of the Federal Tax System,” U.S. Government Accountability Office Report No. GAO-05-878, August, 2005, p. 20.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref6">[6]</a> Hall, Arthur P., “Compliance Costs of Alternative Tax Systems,” Tax Foundation, Testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, June 6, 1995.</p>
<p> </p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref7">[7]</a> Willis, Lynda D., “Taxpayer Compliance: Analyzing the Nature of the Income Tax Gap,” United States General Accounting Office, Testimony Before the National Commission on Restructuring the Internal Revenue Service, GAO/T-GGD-97-35, January 9, 1997. Higher compliance costs can reduce voluntary compliance at a certain level. See, e.g., Sheffrin, Steven M., and Robert K. Triest, "Can Brute Deterrence Backfire? Perceptions and Attitudes in Taxpayer Compliance,” in <i>Why People Pay Taxes: Tax Compliance and Enforcement</i>, Joel Slemrod, ed., Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992, pp. 193-222.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref8">[8]</a> “Tax Gap: Many Actions Taken, But a Cohesive Compliance Strategy Needed,” United States General Accounting Office, GAO/GGD-94-123, May 1994 (hereinafter “GAO”).</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref9">[9]</a> IRS Data Book, 2009. See Tables 14 and 17 respectively.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref10">[10]</a> Admittedly, this is not ideal since state sales taxes are designed in a manner that requires greater compliance costs than the FairTax.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref11">[11]</a> Due, John F., and John L. Mikesell, <i>Sales Taxation, State and Local Structure and Administration</i>, Second edition, Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute Press, 1994.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref12">[12]</a> Research summarized by Cnossen. Cnossen, Sijbren, “Administrative and Compliance Costs of the VAT: A Review of the Evidence.” <i>Tax Notes</i> <i>International</i>, Vol. 8, No. 25, June 20, 1994, pp. 1649-68.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref13">[13]</a> Hall, Arthur P., “Compliance Costs of Alternative Tax Systems,” Tax Foundation Special Brief before the House Ways & Means Committee, June 1995.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref14">[14]</a> Slemrod, Joel, “Which is the Simplest Tax System of Them All?” in <i>Economic Effects of Fundamental Tax</i> <i>Reform</i>, edited by Henry J. Aaron and William G. Gale, Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1996.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref15">[15]</a> Moody, J. Scott, Wendy P. Warcholik, and Scott A. Hodge, “The Rising Cost of Complying with the Federal Income Tax,” Tax Foundation, Special Report No. 138, December 2005.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref16">[16]</a> FS-2005-14, <i>supra</i>.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref17">[17]</a> Estimated by dividing the income tax gap of $353 billion by $1,952 trillion in collections for FY 2004.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref18">[18]</a> Tuerck, David, Paul Bachman, and Alfonso Sanchez-Penalver, Tax Administration and Collection Costs: The FairTax vs. the Existing Federal Tax System, The Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University, Sept. 2007.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref19">[19]</a> The IRS defines the tax gap as “the difference between the tax that taxpayers should pay and <br/>what they actually pay on a timely basis.” The gap is broken down into three components by the IRS: Non-filing (failure to file a tax return), underreporting (understating income, overstating deductions) and underpayment (failure to fully pay reported taxes owed).</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref20">[20]</a> GAO, <i>supra</i>.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref21">[21]</a> The annual <i>Money</i> magazine survey in which 50 accountants prepare a hypothetical middle class couple’s tax return and come up with at least 45 different answers each year is a major indication that our tax system is simply not administrable.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref22">[22]</a> Here are just a few: Thomas, Jim J., <i>Informal Economic Activity</i>, London School of Economics, Handbooks in Economics, London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992; Schneider, Friedrich “Measuring the size and development of the shadow economy. Can the causes be found and the obstacles be overcome?” in Brandstaetter, Hermann, and Werner Güth eds., <i>Essays on Economic Psychology</i>, Berlin: Springer Publishing Company, 1994, pp. 193-212; Schneider, Friedrich, “The Shadow Economies of Western Europe,” <i>Journal of the Institute of Economic Affairs</i>, Vol. 17, No. 3, 1997, pp. 42-48; Schneider, Friedrich, “The Shadow Economy,” in Rowley, Charles K. and Friedrich Schneider eds., <i>Encyclopedia of Public Choice</i>, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003; Pozo, Susan, ed., <i>Exploring the Underground Economy: Studies of Illegal and</i> <i>Unreported Activity</i>, Michigan: W.E. Upjohn, Institute for Employment Research, 1996; Johnson, Simon, Daniel Kaufmann, and Pablo Zoido-Lobatón, “Regulatory discretion and the unofficial economy,” <i>The American Economic Review</i>, Vol. 88 No. 2, 1998, pp. 387-392; Johnson, Simon; Daniel Kaufmann, and Pablo Zoido-Lobatón, <i>Corruption, Public</i> <i>Finances and the Unofficial Economy</i>, discussion paper, Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1998; Giles, David, E.A., and Lindsay M. Tedds, “Taxes and the Canadian Underground Economy,” Canadian Tax Foundation, Tax Paper No. 106, Toronto, Ontario, 2001; and Dell’Anno, Roberto, “Estimating the Shadow Economy in Italy: A Structural Equation Approach,” discussion paper, Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Salerno, 2003.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref23">[23]</a> Willis, supra.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref24">[24]</a> The difference between what taxpayers should pay and what they actually pay on a timely basis.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref25">[25]</a> IRS Statistics of Income, reported in “Impact on Small Business of Replacing the Federal Income Tax”, Joint Committee on Taxation, April 23, 1996, JCS-3-96, pp. 109-127.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref26">[26]</a> Capital export neutrality is achieved when a taxpayer’s choice to invest here or abroad is not affected by taxation. Capital important neutrality is achieved when all firms doing business in a market are taxed at the same rate. While conventional wisdom is that all forms of neutrality cannot coexist, these mutual goals are obtainable with the FairTax. </p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref27">[27]</a> Edwards, Chris, “The U.S. Corporate Tax and the Global Economy,” Cato Institute, September 2003.</p>
</div>
<div><p><a href="http://fairtaxnation.ning.com/profiles/blog/new#_ftnref28">[28]</a> Prepared Remarks of Mr. Todd McCracken, President National Small Business Association, to the House Small Business Committee, February 1, 2006.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
</div>
</div>First in a Series of Hearings on Fundamental Tax Reformtag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2011-01-18:2636007:BlogPost:1286822011-01-18T18:28:35.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div><div class="middleheadline" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Chairman Camp Announces First in a Series of Hearings on Fundamental Tax Reform</strong></div>
<div class="subheadline" style="text-align: center;"><em>First Ways and Means Hearing of the 112th Congress to Examine the Burdens Imposed by the Current Federal Income Tax System and the Need for Reform</em></div>
<div class="NewsContacts" style="text-align: center;">Hearing Date: Thursday, January 20, 2011…</div>
<br></br></div>
<div><div class="middleheadline" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Chairman Camp Announces First in a Series of Hearings on Fundamental Tax Reform</strong></div>
<div class="subheadline" style="text-align: center;"><em>First Ways and Means Hearing of the 112th Congress to Examine the Burdens Imposed by the Current Federal Income Tax System and the Need for Reform</em></div>
<div class="NewsContacts" style="text-align: center;">Hearing Date: Thursday, January 20, 2011</div>
<br/><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><strong>FOCUS OF THE HEARING:<br/><br/></strong>The hearing will examine the economic and administrative burdens imposed by the current structure of the Federal income tax. It will explore the cost of complexity borne by American families, the cost of a corporate tax system that is increasingly out-of-step with the rest of the world, and the broader cost to the U.S. economy of a tax system that fails to maximize job creation and impedes economic growth.</span></span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">In announcing this hearing, Chairman Camp said, “<strong style="font-size: 13px;">This hearing marks the beginning of a dialogue that the President and the Congress – both Republicans and Democrats – must have with the American people about broad-based tax reform that will allow families to thrive and employers to create jobs. With nine out of ten families either hiring tax preparers or purchasing tax software in order to file their taxes, it is clear that the tax code is too complex, too time-consuming and too costly for our families and businesses. We have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, and our small businesses are struggling with continued uncertainty about individual tax rates and new regulations. It is this Committee’s responsibility to examine ways to reform the code so that it won’t be a continued barrier to economic growth and job creation</strong>.”</span></span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><strong>DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS</strong>:<br style="font-size: 13px;"/><br style="font-size: 13px;"/>Please Note: Any person(s) and/or organization(s) wishing to submit for the hearing record must follow the appropriate link on the hearing page of the Committee website and complete the informational forms. From the Committee homepage,<span class="Apple"> </span><a href="http://waysandmeans.house.gov/" style="color: #486a99; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px;">http://waysandmeans.house.gov</span></a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px;">, select “Hearings.” Select the hearing for which you would like to submit, and click on the link entitled, “Click here to provide a submission for the record.” Once you have followed the online instructions, submit all requested information. ATTACH your submission as a Word or WordPerfect document, in compliance with the formatting requirements listed below,<span class="Apple"> </span><strong style="font-size: 13px;">by the close of business on Thursday, February 3, 2011</strong>. Finally, please note that due to the change in House mail policy, the U.S. Capitol Police will refuse sealed-package deliveries to all House Office Buildings. For questions, or if you encounter technical problems, please call (202) 225-1721 or (202) 225-3625.</span></span></span></div>
<div> </div>
<div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px;">Details can be found at: <a href="http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=220354">http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=220354</a></span></span></span></div>
<div><br style="font-size: 13px;"/><br style="font-size: 13px;"/><font size="2">Questions? Just ask!</font></div>
<div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px;"><font size="2">Marilyn Rickert</font></span></span></span></div>Tea Party primary wins give boost to 'fair tax' plan to kill federal income taxestag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2010-09-22:2636007:BlogPost:1124212010-09-22T13:19:38.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div><font size="3">Tea Party primary wins give boost to 'fair tax' plan to kill federal income taxes</font></div>
<div><div>Primary victories by Tea Party candidates have given a boost to the so-called fair tax, a reform proposal that abolishes incomes taxes — and the IRS — and levies a tax on spending instead.<br></br><br></br>The levy received little attention during the 2005 tax reform debate under President George W. Bush because experts warned it raised less revenue than the current system and…</div>
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<div><font size="3">Tea Party primary wins give boost to 'fair tax' plan to kill federal income taxes</font></div>
<div><div>Primary victories by Tea Party candidates have given a boost to the so-called fair tax, a reform proposal that abolishes incomes taxes — and the IRS — and levies a tax on spending instead.<br/><br/>The levy received little attention during the 2005 tax reform debate under President George W. Bush because experts warned it raised less revenue than the current system and would force drastic cuts in the size of the federal government.<br/></div>
<div>While that prospect does not sit well with many Washington insiders, it dovetails well with the Tea Party’s mantra: fewer taxes, less government.<br/><br/>“Both the Tea Party and the fair tax seek to put power back in the hands of the American people,” Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.), the primary sponsor of fair tax legislation, said in a statement to The Hill.<br/><br/>Linder predicts that the Tea Party’s growing ranks will force lawmakers to take a serious look at his fair tax bill.<br/><br/>“I believe that as support for the Tea Party movement continues to grow, Americans will learn about the benefits of the Fair Tax,” Linder said. “As more Americans begin to understand how the Fair Tax can turn our current economic situation around they will voice their support for this fundamental tax reform plan to their representatives, and Congress will have no choice but to act.”<br/><br/>Todd Cefaratti, executive director for JoinTheTeaParty.us, said that roughly 1,000 new recruits join the movement every day. And while the Tea Party is a splintered collection of groups without a unifying leader, Cefaratti’s organization connects them by providing them with daily updates about the movement.<br/><br/>Republicans have taken note of Tea Party upstarts toppling Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Bob Bennett (R-Utah), and blocking Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) from running for a Senate seat he was widely expected to win. Some conservatives who aren't even up for reelection this year are tacking farther to the right to keep the Tea Party from supporting a candidate in their home state.<br/><br/>The Tea Party’s entrance onto the political stage comes as congressional tax-writers begin shouldering the enormous task of reforming the tax code. Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has announced a hearing on the subject this week, the first in over a year.<br/><br/>“We’ve got to reform our corporate and our individual income tax for a whole host of reasons,” he told reporters recently. “It’s going to be difficult. It’s going to take time. I’m going to do what I can to make it thoughtful, and that means extended hearings on [the] various aspects of individual and corporate tax code.”<br/><br/>The fair tax essentially replaces income and payroll taxes with a national sales tax that would likely be collected at the state level. Many experts say state agencies don’t have the manpower or technology to monitor all sales, which will lead to greater noncompliance in terms of taxpayers paying their fair share.<br/><br/>But a recent poll by the Tea Party Patriots gave the fair fax extremely high ratings, beating out other tax reform proposals, like the flat tax, as well as other non-tax issues Tea Parties consider extremely important.<p>“Out of all the issues that online respondents listed – including a balanced budget amendment, term limits, drill-here-drill-now and whole host of other issues – the fair tax came out No. 1,” Philip Hinson, national spokesman for FairTax.org, told The Hill.<br/><br/>None of the high profile Tea Party candidates like Sharron Angle, Joe Miller or Christine O'Donnell mention the fair tax on their campaign websites, but Cefaratti suggests the proposal does fit within their profile.<br/><br/>“[The] tea party movement doesn’t have just one or a few positions as we are a grassroots movement and not a single organization with a single leader,” he told The Hill. “The movement is about core principles of following the US constitution as the founders intended of limited government, states’ rights, individual liberty and freedom.”<br/><br/>The fair tax plays well in the South with all but one House Republican challenger from Georgia supporting the proposal, Hinson says. Republican challenger Bill Marcy in Mississippi’s 2nd district and Rep. John Boozman (R-Ark.) running for the Senate also support it.<br/><br/>Linder’s latest Fair Tax bill has 64 co-sponsors, including Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.). The total is a record high.<br/><br/>“We’ve heard that there are more congressional candidates running in support of the fair tax this year than has ever been the case,” Hinson said, adding, “When you go to any Tea Party rallies, particularly here in the South, you see fair tax signs and fair tax T-shirts everywhere.”</p>
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<div class="article_link"><span>Source:</span> <br/><a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/119655-tea-party-primary-wins-give-boost-to-fair-tax-reform-proposal">http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/119655-tea-party-primary-wins-give-boost-to-fair-tax-reform-proposal</a></div>
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</div>Cosponsor #64 added to the FairTax bill - Where does your Congressman stand?tag:www.fairtaxnation.com,2010-09-16:2636007:BlogPost:1110592010-09-16T15:21:15.000ZMarilyn Rickerthttp://www.fairtaxnation.com/profile/Marilyn
<div>The 64th co-sponsor on HR 25 was just recorded September 14 - Virginia Foxx of NC. Congratulations to all of the North Carolinians who helped make this possible.<br></br><br></br>At the end of the last session of congress, we had 72 co-sponsors on HR 25. That number represented an increase over the previous session and the FairTax bill in the house had recorded increases in co-sponsorship every session since it had been introduced in 1999.<br></br><br></br>When our volunteers are interviewed about the…</div>
<div>The 64th co-sponsor on HR 25 was just recorded September 14 - Virginia Foxx of NC. Congratulations to all of the North Carolinians who helped make this possible.<br/><br/>At the end of the last session of congress, we had 72 co-sponsors on HR 25. That number represented an increase over the previous session and the FairTax bill in the house had recorded increases in co-sponsorship every session since it had been introduced in 1999.<br/><br/>When our volunteers are interviewed about the FairTax, they are often asked about the legislative status. We can always emphasize the following:<br/>(1) that we have far more co-sponsors than any other tax reform proposal,<br/>(2) that we are one of the few with bills in both the house and the senate,<br/>(3) that we have increased the number of co-sponsors each session of congress since the FairTax bill was first introduced in 1999.<br/><br/>The third claim is now in jeopardy, in part due to the fact that there are fewer Republicans in the house this session than in previous sessions.<br/><br/>The house is apparently considering adjourning around the first of October. However, there may be a "lame duck" session in November. That session would only be for one to three weeks.</div>
<div><strong>We need you to encourage your Congressman to cosponsor the FairTax Act HR 25 in the House and S 296 in the Senate</strong>. A phone call to the Congressman's office works best, but faxes and email are also very helpful! To find the your Congressman and their contact information go to: <a href="http://www.contactingthecongress.org/">http://www.contactingthecongress.org</a></div>