The Unfair Tax (And Why The Tax Code Should Not Be Simple)

One of the concessions Kevin McCarthy had to make with the House Freedom Caucus to get the job of Speaker of the House was that he would allow a vote on The Fair Tax Act. The plan was first introduced into Congress all the way back in 1999 by Congressman John Linder, who would go on to author a book called The Fair Tax Book in 2005 along with talk show host Neal Boortz.

The idea behind it is simple: Basically, the plan would abolish all forms of federal taxation, and replace it with a twenty-three percent national sales tax. (Although some have noted that the actual wording of most proposals would result in something closer to a thirty percent tax, as opposed to a twenty three percent one.) It should also be noted that many versions of this plan include some kind of prebate option so poor families would not have to worry about losing money as a result of buying essential goods.

I think that’s the fairest way to describe it, however even on the surface level one can find many issues. The biggest one being how rigid it is by design, as opposed to the much more flexible income tax we have now, which balances the need of the government to collect taxes with what the typical family is able to pay (at least, in theory). Although many Fair Tax supporters attempt to fix this through their proposed prebates (which, I should…