Letter to the Editor

FairTax proposal would be simpler

To the editor:

The Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, pointed to the national sales tax as a way to simplify our method of collecting taxes. He is absolutely correct. This idea has been studied by economists for several years and is called the FairTax in House Resolution 25. There is an abundance of information about this bill at www.fairtax.org. I have not seen one argument against the FairTax that is not refuted by the information on this Web site.

The FairTax would replace several federal taxes including income, FICA, Medicare, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum tax and corporate taxes. The government would collect the same amount of dollars to fund all that it does today including Social Security and Medicare. The simplicity of the FairTax would save $500 billion in compliance cost.

The FairTax would stand on its own and not be combined with either an expensive value-added tax or income tax.

Americans below the poverty level would be entitled to a full rebate, and middle-income taxpayers would pay less tax.

As Greenspan said, it would spur greater economic growth. It is estimated that the GDP would increase by over 10 percent in the first year. Untaxing business would lower the cost of goods and services and cause businesses to stay and new business to come to the United States, which would boost job growth.

More jobs. More income. More spending. No IRS. More taxes for the government. Everybody is happy.

DAN DICKERSON, Jackson