Subject: Essential Requirements Comment: Any new tax proposal, in my view, should eliminate the ease with which special interest groups can gain access to legislative exemptions for their clients. It should also eliminate the onerous burden of compliance with an exceedingly complex code. It should also eliminate the complex enforcement bureaucracy which hangs like the sword of Damocles over the heads of even the most innocent of citizens and turns a voluntary system of payment into a draconian system breeding cynicism about the effectiveness of the democratic process. Any new tax proposal should also shift the basis of taxation from income to consumption thus providing; a broader tax base, a predictable stream of revenue, a progressivity based on need, revenue neutrality and, an ease of compliance. It appears to me that the only current proposal to clearly meet all of these objectives and provide the transparent fairness needed in a progressive tax code is the Congressional legislation currently pending as HR/S 25, The Fairtax proposal. |