Americans For Fair Taxation Stories

Tax documentary, "An Inconvenient Tax," in the works

Accounting WEB.com — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:17:01 GMT

Five filmmakers in association with Life is My Movie Entertainment are traveling the United States this summer in an effort to grasp America’s growing issue, tax reform. The documentary they plan to film is an unbiased, educational and entertaining look into the potential reforms that are inevitable come 2010 when the Bush administration tax cuts cease.

The movie is set to be released in November 2008 in conjunction with the presidential election. The interviewees planned for the film range from influential politicians, world renowned economists, and other contributors to the tax issue. In the following two months, the five filmmakers will travel to D.C., Maryland, Georgia, and Texas. The schedule is tentative however, allowing for potentially new interviewees upon inquiry. Though the film is unbiased, the filmmakers will interview Fair Tax advocates Georgia Congressman John Linder and talk show host Neal Boortz while traveling through Georgia.

Beyond the educational aspect, the documentary will focus on the emotional strife the American public must endure in relation to taxes. The film will combine these real life instances with in-depth interviews, political cartoon archival footage and animated examples, in order to showcase the gravity of the situation in an entertaining and at times humorous manner.

"Never before have the perspectives of politicians, academicians, businessmen, and working class citizens been combined to paint a picture of America using the brush of taxation," said Director Chris Marshall.

The filmmakers feel the film is important to every American, as taxes are essentially a way of life. "This issue directly affects all of us. We're at such a pivotal point with where our tax system is going. So many are uninformed about the situation, uninformed about what will happen if nothing changes, and uninformed about what proposals for change are out there," said Assistant Director Nathan Padgett.

The directors look forward to any face-to-face or phone interviews in the coming stages of production. Please contact press@lifeismymovie.com or call 770-881-7500 ext: 711 for more information. The Web site and Life is My Movie Entertainment Blog will be updated regularly with press releases and news about production.

Originally posted on AccountingWEB.com: http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=105610&d=883&h=884&f=882&dateformat=%25e-%25h-%25y

Congress fiddles while the economy burns

Ken Hoagland — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:40:29 GMT

Could it be more obvious that we will have to save the nation from our own elected officials and candidates?

Retirement investments, savings and college education accounts are evaporating as the stock market falls—while at the same time leading economists predict that trillions of dollars can and will flow into the United States economy after enactment of the FairTax.

Candidate Obama signals a desire to raise the amount of money the government takes from the growth of savings and investments while the country has the lowest savings rate since the Great Depression.

With gasoline, food prices and inflation rapidly escalating and housing values falling, former Senator and John McCain economic adviser, Phil Gramm, says we’re all just a nation of “whiners” and the economy is really just fine.

Candidate McCain has changed his earlier Iowa tune and now tells audiences that the FairTax is not the answer.

Congress and the White House borrow $165 billion from other nations to finance taxpayer rebate checks to stimulate the American economy and ignore the wasted $265 billion annual cost of citizens and businesses preparing income tax returns.

Meanwhile, the powerful Chairman of the House Committee on Ways & Means, Charles Rangel, practices politics as usual and solicits big business for big contributions to his Charles Rangel Center in New York City—and with a wink and a nod Washington adds more loopholes and tax gimmicks for favored interests.

The United Nations concluded this week that three-quarters of the reason for higher food prices can be traced back to turning agriculture to bio-fuel production—here in the U.S. it is another recent ham-handed tax break by the meddling Ways & Means Committee.

While leaders ignore the crisis, citizens work for a FairTax solution

While "leaders" turn a deaf ear to our destructive tax system or offer medicine that will worsen the economic downturn, hometown America is quietly and steadily moving us toward the FairTax.

Hundreds of people recently turned out for a FairTax seminar in Georgia designed to equip average citizens with the means to spread the word to fellow Americans and wake up elected officials.

The Postal Workers Union is considering embracing the FairTax at its national convention.

In Oklahoma, all but one member of the Congressional delegation have co-sponsored FairTax legislation because of the determined and relentless work of local advocates.

A documentary team from Georgia is traveling the nation recording the determined but under-financed FairTax movement.

XM Satellite Radio just featured FairTax.org on "Open Road," Channel 171, heard across the country and a favorite of long-haul truckers. Host Dave Nemo enthusiastically added the FairTax web link to his home page. Other radio hosts from Michigan, Virginia, California, Florida, Arizona, Colorado and elsewhere and the always popular Neal Boortz and Herman Cain continue to support the issue with their audiences.

Candidates for Congress in West Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Colorado, Arizona and elsewhere have embraced the FairTax.

At kitchen tables across the country FairTaxers are finding their own ways to push the movement--from YouTube and MySpace videos to letters to the editor to friendly conversations with neighbors.

Keep the faith—and keep the FairTax movement growing!

It's our nation and we'll have to save it from the original bad idea of an income tax that just keeps getting worse at the hands of tax lobbyists and the corrupted Congressional tax writing process.

Now is the time for all citizens to band together and make the case for the FairTax. Tell your newspaper editor, tell your elected officials and tell your friends, neighbors and colleagues. Our country, our children and our future depend on this common sense solution—and it could not be more needed than right now.

For every FairTaxer who writes a letter to Congress, goes to a Town Hall meeting, talks with a candidate, writes to the local newspaper, wears the FairTax cap or proudly displays the FairTax window sticker—thank you!

For those who feel that someone else will get it done—wake up and smell the coffee because this lifeboat needs your oar.

Our progress is slow but steady. Recruit one more FairTaxer and move us forward one more step at a time. Together we can make it come true.

Ken Hoagland
Communications Director

Congress fiddles while the economy burns

Ken Hoagland — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:06:07 GMT

Congress fiddles while the economy burns

Our cause continues to gather steam in hometown America—while, with smoke in the air, Congress fiddles.

Could it be more obvious that we will have to save the nation from our own elected officials and candidates?

Retirement investments, savings and college education accounts are evaporating as the stock market falls—while at the same time leading economists predict that trillions of dollars can and will flow into the United States economy after enactment of the FairTax.

Candidate Obama signals a desire to raise the amount of money the government takes from the growth of savings and investments while the country has the lowest savings rate since the Great Depression.

With gasoline, food prices and inflation rapidly escalating and housing values falling, former Senator and John McCain economic adviser, Phil Gramm, says we’re all just a nation of “whiners” and the economy is really just fine.

Candidate McCain has changed his earlier Iowa tune and now tells audiences that the FairTax is not the answer.

Congress and the White House borrow $165 billion from other nations to finance taxpayer rebate checks to stimulate the American economy and ignore the wasted $265 billion annual cost of citizens and businesses preparing income tax returns.

Meanwhile, the powerful Chairman of the House Committee on Ways & Means, Charles Rangel, practices politics as usual and solicits big business for big contributions to his Charles Rangel Center in New York City—and with a wink and a nod Washington adds more loopholes and tax gimmicks for favored interests.

The United Nations concluded this week that three-quarters of the reason for higher food prices can be traced back to turning agriculture to bio-fuel production—here in the U.S. it is another recent ham-handed tax break by the meddling Ways & Means Committee.

While leaders ignore the crisis, citizens work for a FairTax solution

While "leaders" turn a deaf ear to our destructive tax system or offer medicine that will worsen the economic downturn, hometown America is quietly and steadily moving us toward the FairTax.

Hundreds of people recently turned out for a FairTax seminar in Georgia designed to equip average citizens with the means to spread the word to fellow Americans and wake up elected officials.

The Postal Workers Union is considering embracing the FairTax at its national convention.

In Oklahoma, all but one member of the Congressional delegation have co-sponsored FairTax legislation because of the determined and relentless work of local advocates.

A documentary team from Georgia is traveling the nation recording the determined but under-financed FairTax movement.

XM Satellite Radio just featured FairTax.org on "Open Road," Channel 171, heard across the country and a favorite of long-haul truckers. Host Dave Nemo enthusiastically added the FairTax web link to his home page. Other radio hosts from Michigan, Virginia, California, Florida, Arizona, Colorado and elsewhere and the always popular Neal Boortz and Herman Cain continue to support the issue with their audiences.

Candidates for Congress in West Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Colorado, Arizona and elsewhere have embraced the FairTax.

At kitchen tables across the country FairTaxers are finding their own ways to push the movement--from YouTube and MySpace videos to letters to the editor to friendly conversations with neighbors.

Keep the faith—and keep the FairTax movement growing!

It's our nation and we'll have to save it from the original bad idea of an income tax that just keeps getting worse at the hands of tax lobbyists and the corrupted Congressional tax writing process.

Now is the time for all citizens to band together and make the case for the FairTax. Tell your newspaper editor, tell your elected officials and tell your friends, neighbors and colleagues. Our country, our children and our future depend on this common sense solution—and it could not be more needed than right now.

For every FairTaxer who writes a letter to Congress, goes to a Town Hall meeting, talks with a candidate, writes to the local newspaper, wears the FairTax cap or proudly displays the FairTax window sticker—thank you!

For those who feel that someone else will get it done—wake up and smell the coffee because this lifeboat needs your oar.

Our progress is slow but steady. Recruit one more FairTaxer and move us forward one more step at a time. Together we can make it come true.

Ken Hoagland
Communications Director

Crusader for 'FairTax' full of optimism

Jay Evensen — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:20:09 GMT

Spend a half hour with Thomas Wright and you begin to think you will find his picture in the dictionary, right next to the word "indefatigable." Wright is the national spokesman for the "FairTax," a clever name for the movement that would replace nearly all current federal taxes with a national sales tax of about 23 percent. Armed with an authoritative radio voice and a polished array of studies and figures, he has been at it for 18 years now — all on his own dime. In real life, he is the managing director of Emory Capital Management in Clearwater, Fla. But he is well-acquainted with airplanes and hotel rooms, all for the cause.

When he visited the newspaper's editorial board last week, Wright brought his 15-year-old son with him, part of a trip to a Boy Scout project in California. But there may have been a more personal reason. "I've been at it 18 years. He's 15," Wright said. "He's more accustomed to hearing me on the radio than having me at breakfast." Such is the life of a crusader.

The national sales tax would replace personal and corporate income taxes, unemployment tax, Social Security and Medicare taxes, estate tax, gift tax, the much-debated alternative minimum tax, as well as taxes on capital gains, lottery winnings, self-employment earnings and probably a lot of other things I can't think of. The only things it wouldn't replace are federal excise taxes and tariffs.

Your paycheck would have no deductions, other than for health-insurance premiums and state taxes. IRS agents would go the way of typewriter salesmen. And everything would cost at least 23 percent more than the list price — plus whatever sales tax percentage your state and local governments charge. I've been at this long enough to know that every tax-reform proposal considers itself fair but that there may not be such a thing. The way Wright describes it, a national sales tax would allow businesses and manufacturers to greatly reduce the price of goods and services. That's because only retail sales would be taxed, not transactions for business purposes.

"Only people pay taxes," he says by way of explanation. "Tax dollars always come out of a person's pockets." Once people understand they get much more in take-home pay, he says, they are eager to climb aboard.

But the problem is, the new tax would apply to a lot of things that currently are not taxed. Take prescription drugs, for instance, or your co-pay when you visit the doctor. Food would not be exempt. When you close on your new $300,000 house, it would cost $69,000 more.

To keep the poor from suffering, the plan would provide a monthly "prebate" check to reimburse taxes for life's basic necessities. But these would be sent to everyone, regardless of income. Meanwhile, the elderly, who now generally pay little in income taxes, suddenly would pay a lot in sales tax

Oh, and there is one other little detail — the 16th Amendment. That's the one that made income tax legal. Wright would repeal it; otherwise, Congress would be tempted to use it in addition to the sales tax. Without a prohibition-type groundswell, that won't happen.
Wright was in town to speak to members of the Utah Legislature studying ways to reform the tax system. He admits the FairTax works best on a federal level, but he's encouraged that a number of states currently are studying it.

In fact, he's encouraged by a lot of things. Sure, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinks the idea is a right-wing oddity that deserves no attention. Sure, Democrats are expected to gain more seats in Congress this fall.

But Wright is, well, indefatigable.

"I'm in the sweet spot," he said. "I don't care who's the president, and I don't care where Congress is. There's always another congressman that our grass roots will go after. We do this through the grass roots, and at the end of the day, the grass-roots voters are more important and more influential than the best-heeled lobbyists."

And when he gets too old for the fight?

Here he pats his son on the shoulder. "When I'm done, a well-trained Eagle Scout can take over."

Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com

Originally posted in Deseret News: http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700242400,00.html

Legislators hear pitch for FairTax

Joseph Dougherty — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:19:11 GMT

Proponents of the FairTax say it's the most equitable way to tax people, based on the new goods and services they consume. And they say the way to do that is with a 23 percent national sales tax on those goods and services. They say the revenue generated from such a sales tax could replace the revenue from income, Social Security, Medicare, self-employment, alternative minimum, gift, estate, corporate income and capital gains taxes.

The FairTax is known as a consumption tax, which is a tax not only on new goods, but services, too, which are currently not taxed: medical, legal and financial, among others. No such tax exists anywhere in the United States, but support for the concept seems to be gaining momentum in Congress, and some states have begun studying whether to implement the tax, as well.

Tuesday, Utah legislators on the Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee, heard the pitch from Thomas Wright, former CEO of Americans for FairTaxation, the nonpartisan organization pushing the tax. Utah legislators are continuing to study tax reform following the property tax debacle of 2007. Skyrocketing property values, combined with four property-tax increases and delayed appraisals in Bountiful led to extreme jumps in property taxes

Davis County leaders scrambled to put together an "equity adjustment" to provide temporary relief to the hardest hit property owners while ramping up the Davis County Assessor's Office so the entire county could be appraised in 2008. As legislators study tax reform, various tax structures have been placed on the table, including acquisition value-based property taxes, similar to California's Proposition 13.

The FairTax is the most recent presentation, but Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, co-chairman of the interim committee, said not to expect FairTax legislation in 2009. Taxing the currently untaxed services could drive costs higher, especially for medical care, which accounts for most of the untaxed services in Utah.

The FairTax is still being studied in Utah, and no numbers have been generated to show how the tax would affect the state's revenues. But that doesn't mean the tax doesn't have support. Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, said the arguments for the FairTax are compelling. "I'm convinced," Stephenson said Tuesday, adding that the FairTax doesn't require the public to reveal personal information to the federal government, such as how many people depend on him, how much he spends on medical care, how much he donates to charities and to whom.

"What business does the government have knowing any of this information?" Stephenson asked, calling it "patently offensive" that the government know that information. "That is reason enough alone to repeal the income tax."

Under the FairTax, providers of new goods and services would simply collect the 23 percent tax and pass it on to the federal government. But some experts say the FairTax is regressive, because families with lower incomes spend a larger percentage of their earnings on goods and services, said Bryant Howe, assistant director of the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel. Other experts argue that the FairTax promotes savings and investment, Howe said. Wright said the FairTax is a tax people want to have once they understand it. It takes many of the burdens from small-business owners and increases their efficiency, Wright said.

Currently, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas are studying how to apply the tax on a state level. In Texas, where the most extensive study has begun, a 7.9 percent to 10.9 percent FairTax could replace state sales tax revenue and varying percentages of property tax revenue But Utah would benefit more than Texas, Wright said, because Texas doesn't impose a state income tax.

Email Joseph Dougherty at jdougherty@desnews.com

Originally published in Deseret News: http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700241628,00.html

So long, IRS?

Cathy McKitrick — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:18:00 GMT

Published in The Salt Lake Tribune

In their quest for tax reform, state lawmakers took a look Tuesday at exchanging Utah's current income, sales and property tax system for a simple consumption tax. "We're just trying to change the way taxes are collected" - not the amount collected, Thomas Wright told members of the Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee. For 18 years, Wright, former executive director of Texas-based fairtax.org, has spearheaded a national grass-roots effort to shift all federal taxes to a broad sales tax on goods and services. Such a move would effectively get rid of the Internal Revenue Service and allow workers to keep their whole paychecks. But goods and services would cost more, being taxed to fund all government programs. Such a tax shift would yield a vibrant, fast-growing economy and skyrocketing investments, Wright said.

Business purchases of goods and services used in operations would be exempt from the consumption tax, which is a kind of sales tax aimed only at the end user.   A legislative working group has analyzed the theory for several months but has yet to formulate a proposal, said Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland, who co-chairs the committee.   And so far, no state has a broad-based consumption tax, said Bryant Howe, assistant director of the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel.   Howe presented the pros and cons of taxing consumption rather than property and income. While it would encourage savings and investment among wealthy residents, the less-well-off would struggle.     "I don't think that the pure consumption tax is viable on a state level," said Alison Rowland, budget and research director for the nonprofit Voices for Utah Children.

"People are considering it a cure-all but I didn't see any solid proposals to mitigate regressivity," Rowland added. "Low-income people live paycheck to paycheck, and they would be taxed on virtually everything they do."     Mark Buchi, a Salt Lake City tax attorney and former state tax commissioner, favors the state's current three-pronged balance of income, property and sales tax.   "It provides stability in the down times and we can do special projects in the good times when things are going well," Buchi said.    A lone consumption tax would be more volatile, Buchi said, netting a windfall when consumer spending is high, but starving the government's ability to provide basic services when people tighten their belts.

Email Cathy McKitrick:   cmckitrick@sltrib.com

Originally published in The Salt Lake Tribune:   http://origin.sltrib.com/news/ci_9823853

How the IRS is robbing you blind

Solon Economou — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:25:49 GMT

This is the first in a series of three articles on how your pockets are being shamelessly picked by government and big business.

I bet you knew the IRS was robbing you. You just didn't know how much. Read on.

Are you a middle-class retiree living here on our little sandbar with money in an IRA? The IRA is supposed to give you a break by allowing you to put money away tax-free, allow it to grow, and then tax you when you withdraw it. Sounds good, doesn't it? You're getting robbed. You're not the one benefitting by it as much as the government with its pork barrel projects.

Last year I took my first mandatory withdrawal from my IRA. In round numbers, it was about $10,000. The covenant I made with the government was that I would then pay taxes on this $10,000. Fine. But I ended up paying taxes on $20,000!

Why? The previous year, $3,000 of my social security was taxable. But last year, the IRA withdrawal, added as regular income, increased my adjusted gross income (AGI) so that $13,000 of my social security was taxed. In other words, I withdrew $10,000, but our tax code, trying to squeeze everything out of the middle class, taxed an additonal $10,000 of my social security, for a total of $20,000. Except for the IRA withdrawal, there was nothing different from the year before. I was, in effect, DOUBLE-taxed for my IRA withdrawal.

Don't think there is not a group of Congressmen (who make the laws) and a group of government tax people (who formulate and execute them) sitting around saying, "Hey, why wait to collect all the taxes on their IRAs? Let's nail them and take all their money now!" That's what they're doing, and we're sitting still for it. Actually, we're doing more than sitting still: we're re-electing the hooligans, allowing them to support their pork barrel projects, and supporting people who don't pay any taxes and for whom multi-generational welfare has become a way of life.

And that's not the end of it. Your IRA capital gains are being taxed as regular income, not at the lower capital gains tax rate. Also, your IRA dividends are also being taxed as regular income, not at the lower dividend tax rate. You are getting doubly and triply screwed.

Cui bono? Who benefits? The government--these same avaricous politicians who made the laws.

In a previous life, as a columnist for the Cape Cod Times, I railed against the Bush dividend tax cut. I pointed out that the rich, who owned oodles of dividend-paying Dow Jones stocks, would benefit enormously from it, while the great befuddled middle class, who had most of their investments in IRAs, would be gouged by having their accrued dividends taxed at the regular income rate. No one listened.

Even Warren Buffet, the richest man in the world, pointed out that under that change his secretary would be paying as much tax as he. People, especially, the middle class, hear "Tax cut!" and they stand up and cheer without realizing they're the fools who will be making up the revenue difference. It's really easy for the government to con them. They want to be conned.

A Roth IRA can help overcome some of these inequities. With a Roth, you pay taxes for your contributions on the front end so that you don't get hurt as much on your returns on the back end. That's the smart thing to do if you're in a position to contribute to an IRA. There are also some conditions that must be met. However, if you're already near or in retirement and want to convert to a Roth, you have to pay a small fortune in taxes up front out of your regular IRA that you may never recoup.

I wish I were not a member of the middle class. Because if I weren't,

1. I would be rich.

2. I would not be a part of a befuddled group that year after year, election after election, allows itself to be taxed into extinction.

I urge you all to read The Fair Tax Book by Neal Boortz. Basically, the fair tax abolishes the IRS and taxes you not on what you earn, but on what you spend. It is a comprehensive and equitable plan, embraced by many, to revamp our disastrous tax system. The web site for Americans for Fair Taxation is www.fairtax.org.

Only one presidential candidate out of the 20 or so originally in our three-ring circus mentioned and endorsed it. That was Mike Huckabee. The others, of either party, seem to be content to continue bleeding America's middle class. That's YOU!

This article originally posted in Cape Cod Today: http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/2008/07/09/how-the-irs-is-robbing-retirees-blind?blog=20

Life, liberty and the pursuit of the FairTax

Ken Hoagland — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:32:25 GMT

Born in the struggle to throw off unfair taxes that sapped the lifeblood from our colonies, American patriots soon pledged their lives and fortunes to each other to create a new form of government that rejected the rule of kings.

A new idea sprang forth that government should only exist to protect and advance the rights that are derived, not from any ruler but which all men and women are endowed with by our Creator. A new government was formed that risked everything to advance this idea that government should serve the will of the people and that the authority to govern could only be willingly given by those governed.

Fearing they would be stripped of fortune, liberty and life itself, our Founding Fathers created a system of government that made liberty and individual rights the cornerstone of every free nation since that time. It started as a protest against unfair taxation. That revolution continues today because we are still living under the experiment that began 232 years ago. Does it still work?

There can be no greater test of our Republic and the virtues extolled by our Founding Fathers than our efforts to replace our tax system that so favors those in the ruling class and so damages those who are governed. Do we accept such a system by “consent of the governed” or does the income tax system really exist because those we have elected are free to ignore or explain away the almost universal condemnation of the broken and corrupted tax writing process that makes Members of Congress powerful and lobbyists wealthy?

This Independence Day, let us renew our commitment not just to the FairTax but to the principle that this is a nation whose government exists only by consent of the governed. Let us take the “revolutionary” position that elected officials either serve the will of the people by enacting public policies that actually benefit the public or start looking for more suitable employment.

We have a tradition in this nation of mistrust of government authority and power. We believe it is healthy and even our duty to question, to challenge and to make our wishes known to those who are elected to serve. The FairTax can unite a divided nation against bad public policy and against those who put profit and power above the best interests of the American people. Redouble your efforts because we work not just for a better tax system but in our latest experiment to determine whether the will of the people still has power in our new Republic.

We celebrate the Constitution and Bill of Rights because we know the ideas they define are the foundation for our campaign to win a tax system for ourselves, our children and our nation that will serve both liberty and the pursuit of happiness.