Is sales tax easier to enforce than income tax?

[CCS]

I think it is unfair that some people dodge taxes while others pay them. I'm not saying I want the dodgers to have to pay high taxes, but I do think it would be fair if everyone carried the weight evenly according to their spending or income, rather than the law abiding half getting hit really hard. If a sales tax is easier to enforce than an income tax, it would spread the burden better.

As for exemptions go, we could just not tax food and not tax rent or mortgages of one of a person's houses or apartments. If they have two houses, they must pick one that is not taxes.

Instead of a child credit, I think people should get a Head Start (for 3 and 4 year olds) voucher, and free elementry school kid's breakfast, lunch and health care. The only way a parent can keep their kid's voucher is if at least 5 other parents send their kids to that parent's day care. The idea is that the most skilled parents should spend 15 hours per week teaching other parent's kids in those early years. If you are good, you can get paid to teach. If not, you get to decide who to send your kid and the voucher to. Only problem I see is some parents will send their kids to a crack head in exchange for the crack head giving them a 50% rebate. So there would need to be some standards and enforcement, such as the state agreeing that the parent is day care worthy.

This also removes the unfairness of the marriage tax/benefit.

We could exempt a few other industries from the sales tax so people on the bottom end don't get hit as hard.

My question, though, is whether a sales tax is actually easier to enforce than a flat income tax.

 

[CCS]

Case in point:

A stripper makes $400 per night, in cash. She can easily evade an income tax, but would have difficulty evading a sales tax the next day. However: isn't she supposed to charge her customers a sales tax that night? Wouldn't many strippers and customers dodge that sales tax in the strip club? How could we possibly enforce it effectively?

What do you guys think? Is a sales tax really easier to enforce than an income tax?

 

[CCS]

The only benefit I see to a sales tax is it encourages people to save money, or invest it, since their income is not taxed till they spend it. This could grow the economy fast. It would also mean that the government can only take a portion of what people are spending, and not a portion of what they are investing. Not sure if that is good or bad. But in a disaster, the government could get necessary funds just by printing money.

Think there is a benefit here, or is a wash, and not worth getting ruffled up over?

 

[CCS]

I just read more about it. Since states already have a sales tax, a national sales tax should not increase regulation. By eliminating the income tax, we'd save $200 billion is IRS enforcement and filing costs.

Employees would never have to file taxes, and would get 100% of their pay checks. Social security would be paid with revenue from the sales tax, not a percent.

Yeah, so people will always dodge the tax, but they are a minority. The sales tax is much better.

Currently, rich people who get most of their income from dividends pay much less income tax than the rest of us. And then there are all the tax write offs that can be iffy.

My only gripe about the fair tax is that they want to rebate taxes from people below the poverty line. How could they know who paid what? I think it would be much smarty to just not tax food or diapers and a few other things like that. Maybe rent up to $800 per month would not be taxed either.

 

[CCS]

http://afft.convio.net/site/PageServer? ... about_main

If you want to network and be counted with the fairtax, go there. I just signed up.

 

[ali777]

So you trying to come up with a few solutions of your own on how to enforce SOCIALISM in the USA???

I thought you didn't care about social justice?

 

[CCS]

No, not socialism. I'm not trying to get enforcement. Rather trying to get rid of the expensive IRS, or cut costs dramatically so they can be used elsewhere or given back to us. I'm really buying into a national sales tax instead of a national income tax.

The first $12,000 of your income is not taxed, per person. When you swipe your debit card each month, your bank, which knows all the other banks transactions you did, tells the merchant's debit card not to charge tax on the item, up to the first $1000 that month. After that, the sales tax applies.

If you have dependents, they are also worth $12,000, but you don't get cash. It goes to you state schools, headstart programs, and basic child health care, in the form of vouchers.

Tell congress to divide up their revenue and spend accordingly, not dream up many spending plans and tax accordingly.

When a rich person puts money in their bank, it is not "horded". The bank loans the money out to small businesses that need loans to start up, and givs the rich person a fraction of the interest. The sales tax encourages people to save their money for retirment, for economic stability, while promoting business growth.