Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Now that you have your W2's...

Take your W2 and check this website http://www.fairtaxcalculator.org/ to see what you might have saved. For those of you who don't know about it, let me hit the highlights:
The fair tax eliminates:
Federal withheld Income Tax
Social Security Tax
Medicare

Or in essence, you get all your paycheck. That seems nice, but how does the government make money?

Federal revenue is replaced with a 23% consumption tax. This means that you are taxed on what you spend. NOT on what you earn. Does 23% sound high? There is already a 22-24% embedded tax in almost everything that you purchase. So you're already paying this tax... its just that you are paying it for corporations.

But Charles, doesn't that include taxing essentials like food and medicine?

Yes it does. BUT, Every citizen is eligible for a monthly household "PREBATE CHECK" which reimburses taxpayers for taxes paid up to a limit determined to cover basic needs.

So for instance: I make about $21,000 a year. With my expenses for school and car payments and the like, the fair tax calculator says I'm eligible for $10210 in tax free spending and so I would get a check for $195 every month ON TOP of getting ALL of my paycheck. The estimated Net Tax burden on me becomes 4.7% of my income. Right now I don't pay into SS or Medicare because I am paid with grant money, however, the Federal Government still takes 9% of my income away, and the state takes about 5%.

Now lets imagine I'm rich?
we'll say my income is 99,000 and all my other payments and such scales accordingly
I'm still eligible for 10210 in tax free spending, and so I still get the check for $195 a month.

For a family of 2 you get 20420 in tax free spending a year, and a prebate of $390 a month.

It doesn't matter what you earn, your prebate is determined by family size alone!
incidentally, this hypothetical single 99,000 dollar earner has a tax burden estimated at 15% -- still far better then the 30% I hear about. And the married $99,000 earner has a 13% burden.

Lets check further... what about a $1,000,000 family? Their burden is 19.7%

This is a win-win-win situation (to steal from "the Office") is it not?

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