LVTFan's Blog

Democracy and Opportunity: A New Paradigm in Tax Equity

Link: http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2008/06/repetti-democra.html#more

I came across an abstract for an article which I suspect, on 3rd reading, is a comparison of the FairTax with the current income tax with respect to opportunity in America. 

I was excited by a couple of statements -- 

This article proposes that the principal equity goal underlying a just government is the creation of equal opportunities for all citizens to achieve self realization, i.e. to maximize their potential. It proposes, therefore, that a tax should be designed to achieve equal opportunity for self realization as one of its principal goals. Viewing equal opportunity for self realization as a design issue leads to the identification of another principle that is foundational - the promotion of democracy.

And disappointed by what I think is its favoring of the income tax.   Yes, the income tax is vastly superior to the Boortz FairTax, which, I realized on my 3rd or 4th reading of the abstract, was only alternative under consideration.

Why Smart People should shun the "FairTax" concept

I came across a piece entitled "Why Democrats should love the FairTax," written by Laurence J. Kotlikoff, a professor of economics at Boston University, an economic adviser to Mike Gravel and a consultant to FairTax.org.

I continue to be amazed how even economists, who should know better -- far better -- than to even think about a sales tax as a solution to anything, can be in favor of such an alternative.

a tax reformer does the family 1040's

I've heard it said that voting and paying taxes are two of the major sacraments of citizenship. Having spent a significant part of the past week working on the machinations of the latter for several different family members, I am weary of the sacramental qualities of income taxes.  It isn't that I think taxes are a bad thing.  But our current system of taxation is both fundamentally wrong and, having said that, unbelievably convoluted.

Most of the commentators I read and hear are only interested in simplifying the income tax. A few propose getting rid of the income tax and replacing it with a sales tax, which I regard as simpler, but nearly as evil as an income tax from a number of points of view.   And that puts aside the question of whether the necessary rate for the so-called "FairTax" is 23% (or 30% in the way we're used to thinking of sales taxes) or closer to 60%, as I understand is more realistically the case.

The FairTax, and why it isn't fair or wise

One of my standing google alerts took me to an article on Florida taxes. On the comments pages, some people were proposing the FairTax as a good alternative to the current federal income tax.  I ended up posting several comments in response to their statements, and thought I'd cross-post my comments here.