Subject: FairTax Plan Now! Comment: Gentlemen: Having heard and read what the proposals of this panel are being considered, it seems to me that instead of simplifying the bloated, inefficient, indeed indecent, tax system we presently have, it will further complicate further the entire code. Why? Why is this so necessary? What is so wrong with dispensing with the present system and replacing it with the Fair Tax (HR 25/S 25)? What is the matter with our leaders that they have to politicize something that affects all of us immensely? Is coddling to special interests more important than the voters? The same people who work very hard and see so much of their hard earned income go to a government that has no regards whatsoever when it comes to spending this money? Complicating the tax code will only advance the loss of revenue. More and more people/businesses will not report. It is estimated that losses in federal revenues from the underground economy are at least $200-300 billion. Obviously, this is not fair to those who are paying their share. Then there is an estimated $65 billion per year which is lost because it is not reported. There is a lot of padding on expense accounts, which is estimated to reduce the tax total by another $18 billion. Other operations, both legal and illegal, jump the total up a few billion more. Please, it is time for change. Democrats are believed to be on the side of the poor and want to hit those who are wealthy with higher taxes. Republicans are seen to be the lap dogs of the rich and supposedly want to lower their tax burden. The reality is that it is all politics. And as long as it continues to be so, the system will get worse. It is time for the Fair Tax. To quote from the Fair Tax website: "If passed and signed into law, the FairTax Plan would: • Enable workers and retirees to receive 100% of their paychecks and pension benefits, • Replace all federal income and payroll taxes with a simple, progressive, visible, efficiently collected national retail sales tax, which would be levied on the final sale of newly produced goods and services, • Rebate to all households each month the federal sales tax they pay on basic necessities, up to an independently determined level of spending (a.k.a., the poverty level, as determined by the Department of Health and Human Services), which removes the burden of federal taxation on the poor and makes the FairTax Plan as progressive as the current tax code, • Collect the national sales tax at the retail cash register, just as 45 states already do, • Set a federal sales tax rate that is revenue neutral, thereby raising the same amount of tax revenue as now raised by federal income taxes plus payroll withholding taxes, • Continue Social Security and Medicare benefits as provided by law; only the means of tax collection changes, • Eliminate all filing of individual federal tax returns, • Eliminate the IRS and all audits of individual taxpayers; only audits of retailers would be needed, greatly reducing the cost of enforcing the federal tax code, • Allow states the option of collecting the national retail sales tax, in return for a fee, along with their state and local sales taxes, • Collect federal sales tax from every retail consumer in the country, whether citizen or undocumented alien, which will enlarge the federal tax base, • Collect federal sales tax on all consumption spending on new final goods and services, whether the dollars used to finance the spending are generated legally, llegally, or in the huge “underground economy,” • Dramatically reduce federal tax compliance costs paid by businesses, which are now embedded and hidden in retail prices, placing U.S. businesses at a disadvantage in world markets, • Bring greater accountability and visibility to federal tax collection, • Attract foreign equity investment to the United States, as well as encourage U.S. firms to locate new capital projects in the United States that might otherwise go abroad, and • Not tax spending for education, since H.R. 25 and S. 25 define expenditure on education to be investment, not consumption, which will make education about half as expensive for American families as it is now." This is not the time to complicate further the lives of all the citizens of this nation. I urge you all to read about the Fair Tax, discuss it openly, ask questions, but most important of all, wholeheartedly recommend it, eliminate the 16th amendment and pass the Fairtax Plan as law. Thank you. Manuel A. Font |