Fair Tax Nation

Replace All Federal Taxes on Income with the Fair Tax Act , HR 25

This is a common refrain from some conservatives who otherwise say they would support the FairTax. Therefore they claim the 16th amendment must be repealed first, because you can’t trust Congress. Of course they know the 16th amendment would never be repealed unless the replacement for the income tax was already in place. That is the claimed reason they prefer a flat income tax.

Let’s reverse the question. What prevents Congress from simply adding a VAT or other sales tax to the current system today? If President Bush and the Republican Congress had passed the flat income tax, what would prevent the current Administration and Congress from changing the rates, adding exclusions and a VAT?

The obvious answer is nothing. In fact, it would be much easier to add a VAT to the flat income tax than to add the income tax back to the FairTax. Consider two scenarios:

Scenario one: The flat tax was passed by the Bush Administration. The current Administration claims a need for more revenue to balance the budget and as part of a plan to fund their obligation shortfalls in Medicare and Social Security. They propose to raise the exemption level to $100,000 on income for a family along with personal exemptions and a lower flat rate to help the poor and middle class and to add a VAT paid by business.

Scenario two: The FairTax is passed. All sections of the tax code dealing with income taxes, payroll taxes, corporate taxes, etc. are gone. After almost a 100-year experience under an income tax, American individuals no longer need to collect records, file returns or fear that ominous IRS letter and the following consequences. Congress proposes lowering the sales tax rate and adding back in an income tax with the new and improved, friendly IRS to enforce it.

Which is more likely? If you said the first option, pat yourself on the back. Under a flat income tax, it wouldn't be too difficult to convince the masses of middle class Americans they would be added to the "no-tax" roles in exchange for taxing business through a VAT (who simply pass it on to those same Americans). It would likely be political suicide for the first Representative that introduced a bill adding an income tax back to the FairTax.

Of course, over time, it is possible that Americans will forget just how intrusive and dangerous a tax on income was…but that would be many, many years in the future. Our forefathers tried to ensure the liberty of all future generations. Just as it is up to us to guard that liberty for prosperity during our own generation, it is also up to future generations to keep that liberty.

Does that mean we don’t feel it is important to repeal the 16th amendment? No. That is why we also support HJ Res. 16 which abolishes the 16th amendment and have included a FairTax sunset provision which would revert us back to the current system if the 16th amendment wasn't abolishes in a timely fashion.

Only one of the two proposals includes an effort to ensure we never end up with both taxes...and that is the FairTax.

Let's make it happen.

This is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering... And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in it's train wretchedness and oppression." Thomas Jefferson

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