Comment: The President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform 1440 New York Avenue NW Suite 2100 Washington, DC 20220 email comments@taxreformpanel.gov The purpose of this letter is to answer to the Panel's request for suggestions regarding alternative tax plans to replace the current Federal Income Tax. We respectfully ask you to lend your support to HR25 in the House and S25 in the Senate, the Fair Tax Act, which would change our unfair and unwieldy income tax system and replace it with a consumption tax, or national sales tax. This sales tax would be imposed on all final retail sales and would provide funding for all governmental functions, including Social Security. Since most states have a state sales tax the mechanism for collecting the sales tax is already in place in all but a few states. This means we could virtually or completely eliminate the most intrusive and costly bureaucracy of our government. The advantages of the FAIRTAX would be many fold. First and foremost, in our opinion as a very small business, would be the savings in non-productive time and money spent in keeping records in order to determine the basis for our taxes, then hiring an accountant to make up the complicated forms to be filed. Also, it would eliminate the multi-tiered hidden taxes, which put our producers in this country at great disadvantage in exporting their products. The FAIRTAX would be so simple that even the least educated worker would understand, just as he understands the state sales tax already in existence, and at the same time would give that same worker a rebate of taxes up to poverty-line income. The FAIRTAX of HR 25 and S25 would be fair to everyone, encouraging saving, investment and education. We are a couple past "retirement age," 80 and 79 years old but still working and paying taxes. We don't mind paying our share but having to take time out from productive work for the equivalent of 10 days or 2 weeks every year to "do taxes" seems like an unfair burden. We know that there are many other small businesses like ours that spend similar amounts of time in order to pay their fair share. This certainly must add up to millions of dollars lost in these businesses and this is the reason we urge you to do all that you can to support and promote the FAIRTAX HR25 and S25 when you make your recommendations to the President. As you probably know, Speaker Dennis Hastert has endorsed a national sales tax as the best alternative to the income tax. Also the House bill HR25 has many co-sponsors in addition to the main sponsor, Congressman John Linder. Donald F. West & Dorothy West P. O. Box 283 Friendswood, Texas 77549 |