Voices: Fair Tax concerns

City wants to buy weather radios for those without

Phil Jones had been working on a construction project outside his house all day on May 22 and was unaware that a tornado watch had been issued. Once he was inside, though, his weather radio went off, and he learned that a warning had been issued.

Opinion

Discussion

June 23, 2009

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Tue Jun 23, 2009, 07:40 PM CDT

I did some research on the Fair Tax proposal, and in a perfect world it sounds good. There are a few details, however, that I think have not been considered. The payroll taxes for instance.

If we got rid of the payroll deductions, how would you be able to fairly allocate Social Security pensions? Currently Social Security entitlements are factored on wages earned. If we based all taxes upon purchases there would be no way of fairly allocating “contributions” without proving what you spent. That would be a worse nightmare than the current tax code.

Without payroll taxes and record-keeping, how do you fund unemployment contributions? Also, just taxing new purchases would just lead people to purchase used, which many do now. Taxing services could be interesting also. I can see many “cash under the table” sales. Also, if you start giving exemptions, you will be right back to where we are now. No easy answers, just a few concerns.

Donna Harlan

Sarcoxie

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