Republicans To Vote On Replacing IRS With National Sales Tax

[turbinetree]

A typical new house would cost an additional $125,000, not to mention the thousands of extra dollars people would pay for food, fuel, electricity and countless other items.

By Susie Madrak — January 19, 2023
Oh, sure. Another one of those "common sense" proposals that aren't sensible at all. Even Steve Forbes knows it's a terrible idea. But it's a floor vote Kevin McCarthy promised Rep. Buddy Carter (GA) to get another vote for speaker. Via Forbes:

New Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has proposed a vote on a proposal called the Fair Tax, which would abolish the current federal income tax and replace it with a 30% national sales tax. Payroll taxes, which finance Social Security and Medicare, would also get axed.The IRS would go. States would collect the sales levy and remit proceeds to Washington.

Unfortunately, as this segment of What’s Ahead discusses, the Fair Tax has serious problems. Right out of the gate, the big one is political. How, particularly in these inflationary times, are voters going to react to paying a 30% sales tax on what they buy? A typical new house would cost an additional $125,000, not to mention the thousands of extra dollars people would pay for food, fuel, electricity and countless other items.

https://crooksandliars.com/2023/01/republicans-vote-replacing-irs-national

Hey Buddy, can I call you Buddy, were you or were you not a pharmacist in Georgia, dispensing drugs.....so do you think Buddy that people that can't even afford drugs now should get hit with a 30% tax in your scheme........and just food for thought did you or did you not vote to give 1.5 trillion dollar tax cut to the billionaires and millionaires and that bill is coming due....after all you have been in Congress since 2015 doing exactly what, let's remind everyone what you did in 2020 by signing your name to a letter to throw out votes....we'll by golly you did......

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/07/us/elections/electoral-college-biden-objectors.html

[Yavin4]

1. A fringe idea from a fringe political party masquerading as a serious national party.

When a party's core ideas become outdated and unable to solve real world problems, the party either changes or it reaches out to fringe elements for political support. Republicans chose the latter. They're not a serious party. They're just a bunch of performative grifters.

[turbinetree]

4. And he is one of the biggest....

[Hortensis]

8. Yup. More self-immolation material for the 2024 elections.

More rational Republicans are no doubt tearing their hair over this. Much more to come.

[TheRealNorth]

2. You think inflation is hurting demand & the economy....

Just wait until everything costs 30% more. It's not like most of us would recoup the difference by not having our wages taxed.

But if you want to scuttle SSI, Medicaid/Medicare, and also give businesses more money (they won't have to pay their half of SSI for every employee) this would do that.

[Girard442]

3. Why not just ask fairies to support the government.

It's the simplest plan of all -- and would work equally well.

[TheRealNorth]

5. In addition.....

Who the hell is going to police whether businesses are collecting and paying out the sales taxes? When I was a kid, I worked for a guy who would not always charge add the sales tax when he was supposed to (or charge it in a way so that it didn't show up as a taxable sale in the receipts- because WI didn't charge sales tax on most food items).

[Girard442]

6. Pretty much a fixed star in tax policy that evasion increases when the tax burden does.

[Retrograde]

13. You've opened a new can of worms

Most states have sales taxes, and many counties in those states have additional sales taxes - in my county it's 9.25 or 9.5%. Does this proposal make allowances for those locales adding their taxes on to their national ones? Will states still be able to collect income taxes? If not, how will they fund themselves - more sales taxes?

And just what gets taxed? When I lived in Michigan in the 1970s most foods were taxed. When I worked retail in New York back in the dark ages, peanuts, popcorn, potato chips, pretzels, pastries and periodicals were exempt from sales taxes (IOW, if you bought a magazine there was no tax, but if you bought a book it was). What about current sales tax exemptions - in my state people with a reseller license don't have to pay sales tax on items they plan to resell. So if I purchase parts to make my popular Wonder Widgets, am I going to have to pay 30% on those, as well as the retailer who sells it adding their 30%?

It's almost as if someone didn't think this all the way through

[Alpeduez21]

14. All business purchases are exempt

I repeat: all business purchases are exempt. Also individual states will be responsible for collecting the tax that is federal and not the states money.

[TheRealNorth]

16. Lol

Yeah, and who is going to determine if someone is buying something for business vs personal use. This already is abused with small business owners buying Ford F-150's that look as if they haven't seen a day of hard work (other then towing a boat) and deducting that as a "business expense"

[keithbvadu2]

7. And then an exemption for national sales tax on luxury items because it protects jobs.

And then an exemption for national sales tax on luxury items because it protects jobs.

???

[Retrograde]

10. Suppose I want to buy some luxury goods

and I have lots of money to spend. I'll just fly to Europe, make my purchases there, and apply for a tax rebate when I leave the EU (which is currently legal: all you usually have to do is show up to the appropriate authority at the airport with your goods, receipts, and outbound ticket). So I pay no sales tax anywhere, and I have a nice vacation abroad. The rich already know the workarounds and use them.

What I want to know is how corporations will be taxed, if at all. Do their office supplies and office furniture go up by 30%, or do they get a special exemption?

[modrepub]

9. States Collect The Levies

And then give them to the Federal government?!?

Brilliant! States like NY and CA should withhold the tax receipts if any of the cheap-ass grifter states don't make an effort to pay their fair share.

[VMA131Marine]

11. The only people a National sales tax would benefit

are the top 5% or so. A single person has to have a taxable income over $95,000 to hit the 24% bracket and they have to have a taxable income over $182000 to get to 32%. The proposed 30% sales tax rate will make everyone except those at the very top much poorer.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. Wanker's gunna wank

[Cha]

15. Bingo!

[Fullduplexxx]

17. A tiered one based on your yearly total compensation

[PufPuf23]

18. These cretins only have skills to destroy.

Hard to find a scheme so stupid and universally destructive to the USA economy and most people.

What "think tank" comes up with these proposals and who pays for them?

What pols are directly involved?

[ananda]

19. Please proceed.

...

[TheRealNorth]

22. I don't know....

I think the average Republican voter hates us so much they are willing pay higher prices to stick it to poorer Democrats.

The fuckers might be insane enough not to care that they are paying more in taxes at the end.

[Igel]

21. In a constitutional democracy, the prime focus is on politics.

I think this would be struck down so fast in the courts that the rest doesn't matter. I don't think it's Constitutional. The idea of a US VAT was floated in the '80s and few thought otherwise.

Odd, nobody's pointed out that this is || the VAT proposals from the '80s, which were decried by left *and* right as without Constitutional authority.

[TheRealNorth]

23. That is a good point....

A national income tax required a constitutional amendment (although I believe previous national income taxes happened in times of war, like the Civil War).

[roamer65]

24. It would kick consumption right in the gonads.

I’d predict at least a 30 percent drop in GDP.

Sales tax avoidance would become the national pastime.

[newdayneeded]

25. You need to understand the rightwing

nutjobs motivation to get why they are doing this. For years the poor (anybody that makes under 25k) don't pay federal income tax. The right wing absolutely hates that. So they propose this "fair tax policy"

It is for one reason, and one reason only! To get poor people to pay more money.

the quote "to be a republican, you have to believe that anything that ails America, is because poor people have too much money" comes to mind.