You obviously don't care to read anything on this so here is an explanation of the Fair Tax vs the current income tax - Fair Tax - you register once a year and get a monthly PREbate - PRE means BEFORE - you receive the rebate BEFORE you have to start buying groceries for that month so you go to the store with money in hand to pay the sales tax (this shoots down your previous post on having to buy groceries without the benefit of the prebate) - you then buy stuff and pay sales tax on it - period, you are done, you don't file anything - now, here is an explanation of our current system - first, you gather up all your paper work from the year, wait for all the different 1099's (1099Q, 1099Int, 1099Div, 1099R, 1099G, 1099Misc ad infinitum), W2's, 1098's, etc to come in. Order all the forms you will need to file all those forms you just got. Be sure to read "What's New This Year" because most everything you did last year has changed in some way. Then, go on and read the rest of the 60,000 plus pages to make sure that you haven't done anything wrong because ignorance of the law is no excuse or give up and go get your taxes done and hope that the tax preparer knows what they are doing. You can always call the IRS too if you have questions but don't rely on what they tell you because they are often wrong and that doesn't excuse you if you follow their advice. Then pay a hefty hunk of change is you didn't figure your W4 form right and pay a penalty or wait to get back the money that the government has been "holding" for you all year, without paying you interest, to make sure you pay in enough.

Maybe filing taxes is easy for you but I can guarantee it is not for many people. If you worked some where where they gave you stock options (like Walmart) and you get a 1099Div with qualified dividends you are going to have to file a very long and complicated form for maybe $10 of dividends. You are probably going to need someone to prepare the tax form for you. Most of my clients are elderly and poor (I'm a volunteer) and they are completely bewidered by all the new stuff. Every year the complexity increases. So, which is harder? Filing a request for prebate once a year or filing a 1040?

I don't need the book. Also I don't think you want any of us to post all we know and believe in on this subject? I'm trying to be kind here Highone....but I'm beginning to think there's corrupted data in your processor.

I understand your concerns and I had many of them at first but you are letting perfect be the enemy of good. I will be the first to admit that the Fair Tax is not perfect but it is so much better than the current system. It has many advantages over the current system and as you point out some disadvantages but overall it is a lot better.

You are worried about sending out monthly checks or deposits to all people due a prebate. Currently the government processes payments from businesses when they pay the withholding payments and social security paymnets and medicare payments. The government has to allocate all of those payment to the correct social security numbers. THis is for all workers in our country. Why would sending out electronic deposits or checks be so much harder? I would guess that most people will prefer to have electronic deposits or have a debit card that is credited. If I was the governmnet I would also offer to let people receive their rebates yearly or quarterly which would relieve some of the work. The governmnet could even hire a private company to do it and create some jobs (maybe for some of the IRS agents that will be out of business).

You are worried about fraud but here again you are letting perfect be the enemy of good. Do you think the current system of 60,000 pages of tax code doesn't perpetuate fraud? I'm not sure of the statistics but the Earned Income Tax credit alone creates a system where there is a massive amount of fraud. Add in all of the other credits and adjustments and you have massive fraud - way more than you would have with the Fair Tax.

You are worried that politicians will be pandering and that certainly is something to worry about but again you are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. Currently, with 60,000 pages of tax codes, the politicians can hide all kinds of giveaways to the special interests and most people aren't any wiser unless they get hit directly by it. We have a standing joke when we take our tax classes every year when someone asks why a certain provision or exception is in the tax code and one old gentleman always answers that some senator's wife or children or whatever needed it to protect them from taxes. Example: why can you use a rental property for 2 weeks and still consider it a rental property?? Why not 1 1/2 or 3? Perhaps some senator owned a rental property that he used for himself for 2 years? The tax code is full of this stuff. At least if the politicians try to make changes for certain groups it will be visible and this is where the grassroots effort that is trying to get this passed will come into play. They will need to fight the politicians. This system takes away a lot of power from the politicians. It will be very hard for them to hide favors for their friends.

You are worried that some people will be irresponsible. Well I don't know of any tax system that can force people to be responsible. A tax system can't cure all ills of society nor should it try. It can't keep husbands from drinking or people from being stupid.

As for being on the governmnet dole, I guess there would be other ways of giving you a credit against sales tax paid - you could fill out a sales tax form monthly and request a refund and keep track of all your receipts but that would be a real mess so the prebate is a very simple way of achieving the same thing. If you buy a product that has a rebate on it and you have to send in for the rebate do you consider that living off of rebates? I really don't understand your point of living on the governmnet dole. A rebate is a payment back for something you paid. The Fair Tax people figure that everyone spends their money at least up to the poverty level. Everyone needs to eat - everyone will be paying sales tax up to the poverty level and then getting it back.

As I said before, the Fair Tax isn't perfect but it is so much better than what we have. I can't believe that you would rather keep the current system with it's 60,000 pages of tax code and an IRS agency that can't even answer questions about the tax code correctly. After 6 years of doing taxes (and my entire lifetime of doing my own) I am so appalled by the current system. I can do a whole article on rants about the current system. Why is it that when you receive interest you have to pay taxes on it but when you pay interest you don't get a deduction? Why is it that when you loose money on a house you can't write it off but when you make money you have to pay capital gains on it? Why it is that people who are over 70 1/2 are forced to take money out of their IRA's and pay taxes on them. Why is it that when you pay into a pension the governmnet decides for you how much you can write off using actuarial tables rather than letting you decide what is best for you? I can go on and on but you get the picture. I've also seen people make really stupid financial decisions just to get a better tax benefit. One guy whose taxes I did worked just enough so that he could get the maximum earned income credit. All of that goes away with the Fair Tax. You are free to decide what when and how to spend your money based on what benefits you and your family the most.

Just as a curiosity, have you read the book? I became aware of this system about 4 years ago and studied it and thought about it for all that time and finally after this last tax season decided that the current system has to go and this is the best alternative I could find.