Corporate taxes and our complicated system of personal income taxes are a main reason our economy will never reach its full potential.  With the current IRS scandal and bipartisan outrage against this corrupt department, there will never be a better time to reform our current system and replace it with a new system that is fair, easy to administer and pro economic growth.

I’ll credit Herman Cain with getting the ball rolling with serious tax reform talk during the Republican presidential debates in 2011 when he proposed his 9-9-9 plan.  That plan wasn’t perfect and it had some issues/details to be worked out but his leadership in this area got the other Republican candidates talking about tax reform and now I think we have a great plan that we can actually get passed.  It’s call the Fair Tax.

The basic premise of the Fair Tax is to eliminate all corporate, payroll, estate and income taxes and replace them with a tax on purchases via a national sales tax.  That is a big paradigm shift for the US since we’ve been more accustomed to taxing INCOME vs. taxing CONSUMPTION.

Imagine the economic boom for companies if they didn’t have to pay a corporate tax!  For many companies, the reason to manufacture their products in a foreign country is based solely on the company paying much less corporate tax in the off shore location than if they kept the manufacturing site (and jobs!) in the US.

Imagine being able to control the amount of taxes you wish to pay.  Your paycheck will have zero federal taxes withheld so you keep the money you earn and you decide how to spend your paycheck and how much taxes you will pay.  If you don’t want to pay more taxes then limit your spending.

Imagine eliminating 90% of the IRS!

Imagine not having to spend days/weeks filling out your 1040 forms each year!

I know you might have many questions and concerns that this idea sounds too good to be true.  Trust me, I once thought that way too.  The Fair Tax website has a very exhaustive list of FAQ’s and I suggest you check that out to see if your concerns have been addressed.

But even if you agree with me that this is a much better taxation system than our current one, how the heck can we get that kind of change through Congress and the White House?

Great question but since our current tax system is the anchor that is holding us down, shouldn’t we devote as much time and resources as needed to cut us free from that load stone?  I don’t care if it takes us 2 years, this is what we need to be working on.  Period.

Conservatives will like it because it is pro business and gets rid of one of the biggest leaches in our Federal Government – the IRS.  Liberals should like it too because it will keep the same tax revenue coming in and will actually be better since consumption is much less cyclical than income.  Plus it can be sold to Leftists by pointing out that the uber wealthy can no longer hide behind tax shelters off shore and will continue to pay their ‘fair share’ because they consume more than the average middle class family.   The richest Americans will still have the lion’s share of the tax revenue pie because they’ll spend more than the rest of us.  Elizabeth Warren would approve!

It is my feeling that this kind of pro business reform will lead to an economic boom for our country that will bring more jobs back to the US and which will increase the spending of our citizens and raise tax revenue without raising tax rates.  Increasing revenue will go a long way to help shrink our debt and with more people working we can seriously address entitlement reforms and reign in that spending as well.  Economic growth is a rising tide that floats all boats and I really think the Fair Tax is the way we open the gates and flood the harbor.

Read up on the Fair Tax details and if you agree with me, then write your Representatives and push this.  If we are still the greatest country on the planet then this huge undertaking is within our capability.  Our future depends on it.

Fair Tax Now!  If not now, when will we ever have this opportunity again?