At my annual Tax Day appearance at the Summit NJ Train Station during morning rush hour. I handed out about 100 pocket cards to about 2,000 who passed through the station on their way to Newark and New York.
I noticed an improvement in receptiveness when I switched from pocket cards to information Sheets. Attached is the two-page (one sheet of paper, front and back) information sheet that I used.
These sheets, in Word® format, can be printed in small quantities as needed from a home computer. Small quantities often make sense because some items change over time, such as:
- Bill number (p. 1),
- Number of sponsors (p. 1),
- Contact person (p. 2).
The lead-off in the piece is that the FAIRtax puts you in control of how much tax you pay and when you pay it. The information sheet is designed to give the essentials of the FAIRtax in greater depth that can be fit onto a pocket card, but at a level that can still be fitted onto two pages. Two pages is probably the saturation point for most people. A copy of these pages is below my bio.
Other approaches may work in different states. This sheet seems to work for many in New Jersey.
Please send me your news from the grassroots. I particularly want to spotlight grassroots volunteers and their activities.
Best regards,
~Jim
Jim holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History from Lafayette College and a Juris Doctor from New York Law School.
Jim was a Captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps in Mannheim, Germany, a staff member of Gerling-Konzern, an insurance conglomerate in Cologne Germany and a Vice President of that company in New York, Vice President General Counsel of Colonia Insurance Company, Assistant County Counsel for the Union County, New Jersey Division of Social Services and a member of the Union County Board of Taxation. Jim had a private law practice in Summit, New Jersey, and now is retiring as a New Jersey Deputy Attorney General following 19 years of service.
Jim was a proponent of consumption taxes as a replacement of income taxes before having heard of the FAIRtaxSM. Jim heard about the FAIRtaxSM in 2005 and decided immediately it was a worthy pursuit. He now is the Volunteer Regional Director for Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, a member of the Board of FairTax® New Jersey, and Secretary and a board member of Americans For Fair Taxation®.
Below is the two page supplement that you can copy and paste for your own use.
How would you like to decide, instead of the IRS, how much tax you pay and when you pay it? How would you like to take home your paycheck free of federal taxes and withholding? Would you like to skip the April 15 tax filing deadline and instead "do your taxes" at the checkout counter whenever you make a purchase - and walk away with no chance of an audit? How would you like to receive a payment each month from Social Security (retirement not necessary) to free your household from tax payments on essentials
Would you feel better knowing that the federal government stays funded at current real levels? Would you want a tax system that will release the full potential of the American economy and possibly solve the looming Social Security/Medicare crisis, the national debt and national unfunded liability? Does a tax with $23 million worth of academic and market research behind it earn your confidence? WELCOME TO THE FAIRtaxSM!
The FAIRtaxSM, so named by a focus group, is a bill in Congress (HR.25 and S.{BILL NO.}) with [NO. OF SPONSORS] sponsors - more than any other tax reform proposal. The FAIRtaxSM replaces 100% (i.e., does not add on to) federal (1) individual income taxes (including Alternative Minimum Tax, capital gains tax and all other taxes on investment income), (2) corporate and business income taxes, (3) estate, gift and generation skipping taxes (4) payroll, Social Security and Medicare deductions (programs of course remain) and self-employment taxes. The FAIRtaxSM replaces all these taxes with a national tax on services and new tangible goods, without exception, sold at retail to a consumer in the United States. There is no tax on business-to-business transactions or exports, so the United States goes overnight from the worst place in the world to do business to the best. The IRS is phased out over three years.
Today’s taxes burden labor and capital, the two ingredients needed to grow an economy. The FAIRtaxSM taxes instead consumption without hurting it.
The FAIRtaxSM is friendlier to the poor than our current system - even though it is a retail consumption tax. How is this possible? For several reasons. First, the FAIRtaxSM removes tax costs, including the tax compliance costs, that are passed onto consumers in the form of higher prices of goods and services. These hidden taxes hurt the poor most and are regressive. Removing tax costs drops prices as happened in 1996 when the federal government, for a short time, did not renew an airline ticket tax.
Second, the FAIRtaxSM removes payroll taxes, which are highly regressive and hurt the poor especially. Removal of these taxes, together with removing income taxes, gives people more money to spend or save. Their purchasing power actually increases despite the tax. People on every rung of the economic ladder benefit, but most of all the poor.
Third, the FAIRtaxSM provides a refund from the Social Security Administration to households whose members lawfully reside in the US. This advance refund, based solely on family size – not income - reimburses taxes on spending up to the poverty level - as determined by the Department of Health and Human Services. The refund is easy to administer because 70% of American households already depend on the federal government for a benefit. This so-called "pre-bate," and the other factors, make the FAIRtaxSM progressive, even though it is a sales tax.
Finally, people can save tax by buying used items. And education, the ticket out of poverty, is not taxed.
If you like what you just read, what can you do? Learn more by visiting www.fairtax.org, or www.bigsolution.org. In [YOURSTATE/CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT], contact [or text] ]CONTACT NAME] [CONTACT PHONE], [CONTACT EMAIL]. Get The FairTax Solution by Ken Hoagland, The FairTax Book by John Linder and Neal Boortz, and Fair Tax: The Truth, also by Linder and Boortz.
The FAIRtaxSM can happen. Interest is at an all-time high. Volunteer at whatever level of participation you feel comfortable. After self-education comes public education. Talk to friends, family, neighbors and colleagues. Write a letter to your local newspaper. Attend a public event and make yourself heard. Contact your Senator or Member of Congress and ask your Member to become a co-sponsor of HR.25 or [SBIL]. With your help, we can get this done!
The FAIRtaxSMrateis 23%, "tax-inclusive," that is - based on the price of the good or service including the tax. This method is different from the way sales-tax rates are usually expressed (except for gasoline, which says "all taxes included"). But this method makes the tax easier to compare to the income taxes, estate taxes and payroll taxes it replaces, which are also expressed tax-inclusively.
Overall prices, however, will not climb 23%. Why won’t they? Let’s illustrate with a simple example. Say a typical consumer today buys a jacket at WalMart for $100 (plus state sales taxes). That consumer needs to gross $126 at work to have $100 to pay for the jacket. Under the FAIRtaxSMthe consumer keeps $126, but we need to make two adjustments to today's $100 price. First, our economist estimates that, on average, pre-tax prices will drop up to 12.5%, in this case to $87.50, because the tax-cost of making the jacket disappears. Add back the FAIRtaxSM, and the price increases to $113.64. However the consumer has $126 now instead of $100 to pay for the jacket and is $12.36 ahead. That is $12.36 the consumer now can spend on something else, save and/or invest. For seniors, Social Security benefits are adjusted for cost of living.
Who pays more under the FAIRtaxSM? Foreign touristswho pay for hotel rooms in New York. Criminalswho use the proceeds of illegal activity to buy goods and services. Undocumented immigrantswho buy food, clothing and pay rent – without valid Social Security numbers, they do not get the “pre-bate.” Spendthriftswho consume wealth. The FAIRtaxSMis a wealth taxthat gets at wealthwhen it is consumed.
Exports and investments in American business boomunder the FAIRtaxSMbecause American-based companies can produce goods and services without a federal tax cost component in the price. The United Statesbecomes the world’s tax havenbecause labor and capital no longer are penalized as they are today. Jobsand $12 trillionworth of offshore capital come back to America in months. The FAIRtaxSMis transparent, efficient, fair,and promotes economic growth.The FAIRtaxSMis also neutralin application and unintrusive.