The FairTax Book

Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS

By: Neal Boortz, John Linder

Narrated by: HarperAudio

Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Wouldn't you love to abolish the IRS...Keep all the money in your paycheck...Pay taxes on what you spend, not what you earn...And eliminate all the fraud, hassle, and waste of our current system?

Then the FairTax is for you. In the face of the outlandish American tax burden, talk-radio firebrand Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder are leading the charge to phase out our current, unfair system and enact the FairTax Plan, replacing the federal income tax and withholding system with a simple 23 percent retail sales tax on new goods and services. This dramatic revision of the current system, which would eliminate the reviled IRS, has already caught fire in the American heartland, with more than six hundred thousand taxpayers signing on in support of the plan.

As Boortz and Linder reveal in this first book on the FairTax, this radical but eminently sensible plan would end the annual national nightmare of filing income tax returns, while at the same time enlarging the federal tax base by collecting sales tax from every retail consumer in the country. The FairTax, they argue, would transform the fearsome bureaucracy of the IRS into a more transparent, accountable, and equitable tax collection system. Among other benefits, it will:

• Make America's tax code truly voluntary, without reducing revenue
• Replace today's indecipherable tax code with one simple sales tax
• Protect lower-income Americans by covering the tax on basic necessities
• Eliminate billions of dollars in embedded taxes we don't even know we're paying
• Bring offshore corporate dollars back into the U.S. economy

Endorsed by scores of leading economists and supported by a huge and growing grassroots movement, the FairTax Plan could revolutionize the way America pays for itself. In this straight-talking book, Neal Boortz and John Linder show you how it would work, and how you can help make it happen.

©2005 Neal Boortz and John Linder (P)2005 HarperCollins Publishers

ugghh, libertarian nonsense

MONEY MAGAZINE did a great piece on this one, underlining how Boortz and Linder completely leave out the effect this sales tax idea would have on wages, i.e. they would have to be cut sharply so as to allow for the decrease in pre-tax prices this "theory" leans upon. and here i quote said article, "Sure, you'd get to 'keep 100 percent of your paycheck,' as Boortz and Linder repeatedly write, but it would be a smaller paycheck...That's kind of a big thing to leave out." (MONEY senior editor Pat Regnier). In other words the tax burden would be shifted HEAVILY towards lower income wage earners, a result Boortz apparently has no problem with whatsoever, since this is the very same wacko that said we should intentionally save the rich first if there was to be another disaster in the country, because everyone else is "a drag on society".

listener beware.

Flawed argument

The book argues that replacing the current tax system with a federal sales tax would solve all of our tax problems. As Money Magazine pointed out, for this plan to work wages would have to be cut. Also, since the lower and middle class spend the majority of their earnings on consumption of goods and services, the tax burden would be shifted to them. Google for "Money Magazine Fair Tax Flaw" for the scoop.

Why aren't more people on-board with this?

I believe the idea of reforming our tax system is a must. I love the idea of a flat tax and believe the many of the ideas put forward in this book would be a good idea. When I put the fair tax into Google I was surprised with the broad based negative sentiment. Why aren't more people on-board with this? Makes me wonder. The book was worthwhile but less interesting than I thought.

fair tax

The value-added tax is brilliant. Sure you might not get as big of an income, but it wouldn't be that much different. People who do not like this system fail to understand the great benefits of it. First, Food would probably be un-taxed as well as needed clothing items, just as is already the case in many places. This pretty much takes care of low income earners. The whole system is based on consumption. This will reduce the tax burden on all current tax payers. Why? because there are millions of illegal immigrants who will pay their fair share of taxes. They too are enjoying the joys of this country and they ought to pay taxes just like everyone else. The value-added (basically a national sales tax) tax takes care of this. As Boortz mentions, this leaves no need for the IRS as it exists today. It could be much smaller, more efficient, and more cost effective.

Besides all of this, it would help issues that Democrates are so big on. Keeping manufacturing in America. The democrates and many americans cry about manufacturing going over seas. You want to get it back? Do a value-added tax. This means no corporate tax, which is a major reason for manufacturing over seas. Besides that the tax is taxing people who are buying. Who does a major part of the buying in this country. Hello, THE RICH! So who is still going to be taxed more? The Rich. The truth is, it is a fair system.

Of course, this system will not be perfect. But it would be much better than what we have now. Something to keep in mind: If you look hard enough you can find problems with just about everything. I use that phrase to explain the comments of those who disagree with this tax system.