Subject: tax reform Comment: Greetings, Dear Madams and Sirs, I am a small business owner and operator, for over 20 years. I do something like 250,000 yearly gross revenue, not a big business. Two employees plus myself. I applaud your efforts at tax reform! First of all, how can an intelligent, educated society such as the Americans, be reasonably expected to suffer the indignity of a tax code that hardly ANY TWO PEOPLE can interpret the same way? You go to "tax experts" and get widely differing opinions on what's the meaning of one regulation vs. another, and this includes the agents and representatives of the very same "service" that enforces that code!!! It's just RIDICULOUS!!! The dampening effect of our present tax code and system washes over our entire array of citizens, corporations, cultural and religious experiences! The citizens of this great land are FED UP WITH THE FRAUD, AND THE ABUSE!!! The courts DEFEND the gov't, and this abuse!!! They deny the citizens their due process, and fair and impartial reasoning from the justices! They appeal to the gov't for redress of their grievances, and they are DENIED that redress!!! THE PEOPLE are CHOKING on the stench of this abuse of power, which is APPOINTED over them, and NOT ELECTED, OR ANSWERABLE TO THE PEOPLE, WHO PAY THEIR WAGES!!! IS IT ANY WONDER, THAT THE PEOPLE ARE FED UP??!! Is the gov't ready for another Boston TEA PARTY? Taxation without representation ring any bells? From what I see and hear, I think the Citizens are getting very near to that level of zeal and fervor, on this matter! I have such a deep and compelling conviction that our tax system is THE biggest woe our American society is burdened with, aside from moral and value system considerations. This is the big 1,000 pound gorilla that sees all and hears all, making life a non-ending stream of "tax-consequence" decisions , based entirely upon the benefit or penalty of the decisions we make! THIS IS SO MORALLY AND ECONOMICALLY BANKRUPT IT IS HARD TO PUT IN TO WORDS. Part and parcel of this intrusive and controlling mechanism is the accounting industry and the legal system. They of course want to protect their turf and livelihoods, on the backs of the citizens who they "serve" but who are hapless victims of the system as a whole. The only system that will give us the MENTAL and PHYSICAL freedom from this pervasive control, and intrusion in the financial affairs of us all, is the National Consumption Tax! EVEN if we have to pay 20% or 23% of our gross income, to pay for services and infrastructure, it would be worth the cost in terms of freedoms and psychological control of our lives, and freedom to make choices which are BEST for the RIGHT REASONS, and not their TAX CONSEQUENCES!!! Tax decisions which all too often have the rules changed long before the fruit is seen, with the exercise of them. People could make charitable donations, help families in need, support our government and it's policies regardless of the party in power (not it's tax treatment) and it would have to operate within a responsible budget, once again. People would for the first time in their lives, feel genuinely FREE, able to make financial choices based on the money in their pockets, not what they may have left over IF the Feds choose to give some back at the end of the year! A FLAT TAX only shuffles the deck. The accounting business will still be necessary for business and banking, but the balance of power will be reversed!! People will choose them IF they have the need for them, NOT because the feds will pounce on them if they don't!! Embedded taxes in the goods and services (such as payroll taxes, corporate taxes on manufacturing, etc.) would be removed from the cost of those goods and services, reducing the cost to the consumer, negating much of what the end-use tax would amound to! It would bring investments back to the USA, jobs would be plentiful again, people would be energized to go forth and create their own miracles, not beholden to the gov't, or burning up hours and days trying to calculate the effect of tax decisions on their ventures! WE AS A NATION CRAVE AND DESERVE THE FEELING OF EMPOWERMENT IN INDIVIDUAL LIVES once again, such as our forefathers and founding institutions envisioned for this new and ambitious society of banded together American citizens! From what I have observed, from reading commentators, historians, researchers, professors, lay people and accountants.... the Fairtax proposal looks to be what this country needs to REPLACE the IRS, and the tax code, and along with that ABOLISH the 16th Amendment once and for all, to keep this onerous system from creeping back into the fold! I could expound on this ad nauseum, if space and time permitted, and your patience, but it would be better for you to read the extensive research found at the website of www.fairtax.org, which is an organization which has done it's due diligence, and has not an agenda driven by self interests, but in the interests of the masses of American citizens who have simply HAD ENOUGH ALREADY, demand that our legislators and Commander in Chief take this issue and fix it once and for all! This kind of system has worked for centuries in other cultures, and even many states in this country have successfully run their budgets on this form of taxation, and funding for it's needs. I believe it will bring accountability back to our government, and our legislators, who cannot porkbarrel wasteful expenditures to a few, who know how to pull the teats and milk the system, to the benefit of some, and the fleecing of the many. PLEASE, Sirs, do the right thing, and REPLACE THE IRS, and the taxation of "income", or labor, and tax the consumption of goods and services! That will include the taxation of the news industry, the advertising industry, the insurance industry, and lawyers fees, which to date have enjoyed exclusion from this bane, to the consternation of many! It's time they do their share, and still compete for the dollars of those who they serve! With great hopes and expectations! Sincerely, J. Landis P.s. I also find it quite disturbing that it seems the greatest opposition to replacement of the tax system comes from the liberal LEFT politicians and their constituents! I am a centrist, and Independent, and find this quite curious, and revealing. It would seem that they are afraid of losing their grip on the huge money tree they are so attached to! Well, to HECK with them! It's about time we did what's best for the COUNTRY, and not for political spoil! It would appear that the liberal machine is bent on opposing any positive reform that the President may get credit for!!! WELL, TOO BAD.... IF THEY REPRESENTED MORE OF WHAT AMERICA BELIEVES IN AND EXPECT OF THEIR GOV'T, THEY MAY HAVE A BETTER CHANCE OF GETTING LISTENED TO, INSTEAD OF GETTING CREDIT ONLY FOR OBSTRUCTING PROGRESS!!!! EITHER LEAD, FOLLOW, OR GET OUT OF THE WAY, DANGIT!!!!! |