Maureen <mamamaur...@gmail.com> wrote: > > This is where your argument falls apart. The amount of money for > someone who is at or below the poverty level would not decrease > because they would receive the standard stipend to cover all sales tax > they would owe.
But doesn't your argument fall apart when you look at average middle class tax burdens? Here's how I think it does: E.g. Let's suppose we take a family of 4 making 50k/yr, which was the median income: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States (1.) They're at 200%+ of the poverty line, according to the 2011 guidelines: http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/tools-for-advocates/guides/federal-poverty-guidelines.html (2.) They pay 2.37% in federal income taxes (or ~$1185, if they had 3 kids it's 0.3%!!). This number is calculated using the 1040 form assuming married couple filing jointly, 2 kids under 17 that live with their parents, $50k of income, standard deduction, and 4 exemptions and $1000 child tax credit per kid. Note how conservative this is, i.e. NO other deductions/credits (no IRAs, no home credit, etc etc) that most people would have are included. If those deductions WERE included the rate drops even further. So what would happen to this family under the "Fair Tax"? Under the FairTax system they'd now be getting hit with a "fairly" substantial tax burden (Ha! Get it? "Fairly"?) when trying to buy things like soccer balls and band lessons for the kids. Or haircuts. Or school supplies. All of sudden to them, life just got 15-20% more expensive! That's a MAJOR life hit. They might have to choose between paying mortgage and having their kids get, say, math tutoring. Thus when you COMPARE tax burden of the middle class (and others!) suddenly the "Fair" Tax looks pretty fecking unfair and pretty fecking regressive ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:340177 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
