A great starting point on tax debate

Response to the John Sortore Letter to the Editor publised Oct. 5:

The idea of a simple three percent federal sales tax that would replace the income tax sounds good, and is a great starting point to open the debate on passing the FAIRtax bill HR-25 (stalled in Congress for 20 years now).

The FAIRtax is a plan backed by more than $20 million in private research. It, too, is based on a national sales tax. But instead of being regressive — punishing the poor, as most sales taxes do — this plan is “progressive.” It eliminates all federal taxation for those living at or below the poverty line based on family size. When spending above the poverty line, the tax automatically and gradually increases as people spend more. Note that it is based on spending and not on income.

It took years for economists at leading universities to come up with the simple formula that makes this plan work. But opponents in Congress and elsewhere have kept it bottled up, as this plan benefits “the people” and not our politicians as does the current income tax system.

The FAIRtax plan. Learn more about it at this website: https://bigsolution.org, and tell you member of Congress to support it.

This story was originally published October 11, 2017 at 2:57 PM with the headline "A great starting point on tax debate."