Subject: Sales Tax Comment: I am a proponent of the national sales tax with low income exemptions. I believe such a tax should have as a goal the elimination of the need for the government to know a person's income. (I believe it is no one's - including the government's - business to know another person's income.) The low income exemption should not be automatic; low income earners should be required to apply for an exemption and to provide income documentation. Tax payers not claiming the exemption should NOT be required to disclose income information. In addition, since incomes would not be disclosed under this proposed system, social security and any other taxes that are now income-based would have to be sourced differently. I would favor increasing the proposed sales tax rate to include a government pension provision which would replace the Social Security tax and scrap the Social Security program. Such a pension would be independent of a wage earner's income and would be a guaranteed amount paid to retirees. The portion of the sales tax collected for such pension would be all or partially invested in private accounts. Such a plan would eliminate the need for the government to know a citizen's income, and hence a large measure of privacy would be regained by the citizens. I would also favor a two-thirds vote required to change the tax rates or the pension amounts. |