The federal income tax was established in 1913. It actually required an amendment to the United States Constitution to make it legal, because our Founding Fathers believed that taxing individuals on their private income was economic folly.
The original income tax legislation affected only individuals earning $4,000 or more per year, at a time when the overwhelming majority of Americans earned far less. The 16th Amendment was eventually ratified and added to the Constitution, and a national income tax was born. That 16th Amendment was simply worded, the tax return consisted of only one page, and the entire tax code itself consisted of only 14 pages.
Since then, the federal income tax system has become so complex that it requires tens of millions of Americans to seek professional help to comply with it, not to mention the enormous, expensive federal bureaucracy required to enforce and administer the tax. The Internal Revenue Service employs more investigative agents than the FBI and the CIA combined, and with 144,000 employees, employs more people than all but the 36 largest corporations in the United States.
In addition to the $8 billion needed to operate the IRS, at least $250 billion (that is $850 for every man, woman, and child in this country) must be added to account for the cost of complying with the tax code. Massive amounts of our national wealth are consumed merely by measuring, tracking, sheltering, documenting, and filing our annual income. Almost all of this would vanish if the US would pass the FairTax legislation.
Many in America want a system where only the rich shoulder the financial burden of the entire country on their shoulders – just so long as you define “rich” as being one level above yourself. Liberals love this system as long sa you’re taking money from someone other than yourself and giving it to everyone else. A federal welfare system where those that achieve are forced to subsidize those that do not. Take your paycheck and rip it into many pieces, keep one of the pieces for yourself, and let someone else distribute, as they see fit, the remainder of your paycheck to others.
Many in America want an “equal” system, one where there are no rich people, one where (like Marx envisioned) everyone makes the same and pays the same. Each time this has been tried the taxes, or the government’s share, of your income stifles achievement and creativity. You end up with a economy that slowly implodes on itself, sometimes with a revolution. Yet many in the US still dream fondly of a Socialistic (a.k.a. Progressive) structure here in America.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We can fund the operations of the federal government without punishing achievement. We can fund the government without creating and sustaining class envy. We can fund the government without putting American businesses at a competitive disadvantage with much of the rest of the world. We can fund the government while allowing American workers to receive 100% of their paychecks each and every payday, and allowing them to become savers and investors. It’s called The Fair Tax. The Republicans are too scared to take a stand, and the Democrats are absolutely determined to make sure the Fair Tax never becomes law.
This Friday is April 15th. What will you be doing on that day?
