Actually since there were 105,480,101 households in America in 2000 there are actually--by my calculations--about 97,041,692 reasons (or should I say households) to oppose the Fair Tax; or any sort of consumption tax.
Don't follow what I mean? I know, unfortunately at least a few supporters of the Fair Tax probably hope you don't. I'll turn to the tax policy center and their online issue brief: National Retail Sales Tax: Who would bear the burden?
Under a national retail sales tax, the wealthiest households in the country would receive stunningly large tax cuts. Households in the top 1 percent of the income distribution have an average income of about $475,000. Their average tax cut would be $79,000, or more than the incomes of all but about 8 percent of households. Put another way, the roughly 1.1 million taxpayers in this top 1 percent would save a total of $87 billion on their taxes each year. This cut would be financed by tax increases on the bottom 92 percent of households. Households with income between $5,000 and $50,000 would face an average tax increase of over $1,000.
If someone turns to you and asks why you don't want the Fair Tax... "cause like its Fair" and "who would be against that." Just smile and respectfully say...
"Speaking as just one of the 92% of us in this country who would actually get a tax hike from it... I'd have to say no its not, and no it wouldn't be."
3 comments:
First of all, there is an alternative tax proposal specifically called "the national retail sales tax" which is not the same as the FairTax. Second, since the amount of tax a person actually pays under the FairTax is entirely determined by how much they spend, there is no scientific way of predicted let alone averaging anyone's savings or losses. These so-called 'studies' are always based on totally arbitrary assumptions that are specifically selected to give whatever results a person is looking for- good or bad.
THe amount proposed by the Fair tax people is 23%--that number is VERY contested by most economist... example Bruce Bartlett here: http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/files/bartlett_fair_tax.pdf
But lets assume for two seconds 23% is correct. IF you currently pay less than 23% of your income to the Federal government you will be incurring a tax increase. It has nothing to do with what you consume. Everybody under 200,000 (I can't quite remember the number... its in the Bartlett article if you need to check it. Percent of taxation is where the hike comes from. Plus people makin 200,000 and people making 18,000 a year only have to buy one to three gallons of milk a week. So it is an inequitable taxation rate on top of the fact that it increases everyone taxes. Feel free to further claify but I don't follow your comment.
pardon the typos I'm in a hurry!!
: )
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