Wednesday, December 5, 2007

The "Fair Tax"?

Really? How would you know? On a basic level we all know the tax code is possibly the most complicated document on earth. The amount of money it calculates and collects is mind boggling. Why, or how, would any system be any simpler, considering the sheer numbers of people and amount of money involved?

The idea of one tax, included in the price of your purchase is seductive. The end of the IRS is seductive. No more April fifteenth is seductive.

Generally the act of seduction is to present the facts in a light that will defeat resistance to an ill considered act.

Remember Murphy Lives! Nothing is as simple as it looks!

I have only heard about the fair tax lately, and only read two articles about it and already have doubts.

3 comments:

Sevesteen said...

The current system is so ugly, just about anything would seem seductive by comparison. I've always liked the ides of some sort of sales tax instead of income tax makes a tremendous amount of sense. In addition to the concrete benefits, I am also in favor of reducing the ways the tax code can be twisted to control taxpayer behavior.

none said...

A sales tax yould just move most big purchases to the black market and the government would have to eliminate cash to be able to better control their take.

Ron Simpson said...

putting the choice of when we pay taxes, ergo when we buy something, is a lot better than being robbed by the IRS. The things I like about the fair tax is getting rid of capitol gains taxes, the death tax and the IRS.
If we can keep our money and invest it without being taxed on the money we earn on the investment, it will encourage people to invest money in the economy. Plus, since some stuff will not be taxed, if you refrain from buying big ticket items, then you will actually pay less in taxed. Getting rid of the IRS and the huge sink hole of money of the bureaucracy it is has to be a good thing.