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Seems to me that a CPA would be cutting his own throat to support a fair tax. The current tax code with all its 'unfairness' is job security for folks like him.

Who could possibly oppose a fair tax? Liberals, that's who! As a conservative, I support fairness, but as a realist, I realize that fairness will be forever thwarted by liberals and their nefarious soak-the-rich schemes. "Abolishing the the current tax code" is the conservative version of "give peace a chance." It sounds nice, but won't work in the real world.

Plus, my wife is killer about collecting receipts for tax write-offs. One of these years, the IRS is going to owe us.

Good points, brian444. I think you hit on one major question: What is fair and to whom, and who will decide?

Bush and his cronies have soaked the middle class and the poor. Wealthy taxpayers pay an average of more than $30,000 less per year; poor taxpayers pay about $0.60 less. Bush has also cut needed services to the poor, such as Head Start and health care.

I don't support indefinite welfare for healthy poor people, but I believe that government should help people to help themselves. Rich people don't need help; they can pay for whatever they need. Poor people are the ones who need help.

I don't think a truly fair tax can ever be implemented. As brian444 and nitpicker pointed out, there's no one definition of fair. There will always be exceptions, such as a family with a catastrophic illness. Politicians will always use taxes as incentives as well.

Instead of calling it a "fair-tax," why not call it a "flat-tax?" Set a flat-tax rate for corporations and one for individuals. Stop all of this incidios write-off fiasco and have everyone pay. Stopping the "write-offs" would mean that there are NO "loopholes." Imagine what a world it would be then!

Shalom

Darryl,

The problem is that there will NEVER be a true flat tax in this country, nor is there one in any other country that I know of.

If there were, I'm betting that democrats would squawk and gripe because (in theory) it would require rich people to pay less in taxes and poor people to pay more. That's unlike the current progressive tax we have. I'm not saying it works that way in theory as the rich find ways around it.

On the other side, Republicans would scream and fuss because a true flat tax would be applied to both earned and unearned income, captial gains, etc. Those rich folks want a preferential tax rate on their unearned income since that makes up a lot of their money coming in.

Any flat tax approved in this country would not be pure. There would be exemptions where money under a certain thresh-hold would not be taxed. Then there would have to be exemptions on capital gains. By the time they got through 'fixing' the flat tax to make it work, the outcome would be much like the rules in Animal Farm.

The very rich and the very poor are powerful constituents of both parties and neither party is going to introduce a policy that is likely to upset their base.

I'd love to see it work, though.

Beadbaby, check this out. It is 8 years old granted, but currently the bottom 50% of wage earners pay 4% of Federal income taxes.

http://www.allegromedia.com/sugi/taxes/

Higher income earners pay much, much more in taxes, so natually they should get a larger tax break when taxes are cut! It's just common sense.

If you are really concerned about poor people then you should consider state and local taxes. We all pay around 29 cents/gallon in gas taxes regardless of income, NC is one of the highest in the Southeast. I just filled up in VA today because gas is 14 cents/gallon cheaper there. Why? The tax is lower! Ditto for SC and GA.

We all pay 7% sales tax regardless of income. Does that hurt wealthier people? Nope they just pay it and move on. Poor people are the ones hit harder by this tax. Remember the 1% hike to 7% was supposed to be temporary?

Of course we all pay state income taxes as well in addition to property and a myriad of other taxes.

Look at your phone bill too! Taxes for this and that.

Soooo, I would look to Raleigh in your quest for lower taxes for the poor, not just the Feds.

Being self-employed, I have the joy of hand writing a check 4X per year to the IRS and the state. If everyone had to do this instead of "conveniently" having taxes deducted by their employer, there would be a tax revolt in this country.

The thing that pisses me off the most are idiots who claim they didn't have to pay taxes in a given year, rather they received a refund from the IRS!!

Dan,

I agree with all you say regarding state taxes. Our state elected officials are out of control when it comes to spending.

A little good news is that the sales tax rate fell to 6.75% last week. I think it is scheduled to fall again to 6.5% sometime next summer. Of course, I'm sure our leaders will find some way to keep that from happening.

Dan, here are a couple of points about the link in your post: 1) if the data is eight years old, that puts it into the Clinton administration and says nothing about all the tax breaks he's given to the rich. And 2) even that site conceded that the top 1% of income tax payers received 15% of the income at that time. (Admittedly, at that time they paid 30% of the income tax. But remember, they still had a whole lot more discretionary income than the poor or middle class. The Bill Gates and Warren Buffetts of this country can afford to pay more in taxes than you and I.)

I don't know, but I'd be willing to guess that the top 1% and top 5% of income tax payers are getting an even larger slice of the pie now under the current administration.

And yes, sales tax is regressive, but it's a little better now than it used to be: food (except from a restaurant) is taxed at only 2%.

Anyone brave enough to look at the state budget, go to this website: http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2005/Bills/Senate/PDF/S1741v8.pdf (sorry, I'm not html literate).

We don't always get what we pay for, but usually quality isn't cheap. What state services that you personally receive are you willing to give up in the name of tax cuts? Good roads? Your children's public school, community college, or atate university education? Clean water? Police? It's really easy to make cuts in things you may not use, such as Medicaid, but if you don't like the taxes, ask yourself what you can lose. Don't always push the burden off onto somebody else.