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FairTax received a peer review by Misplaced Pages editors, which is now archived. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article.

Archives If there are unfinished discussions or suggestions haven't been implemented that have been accidentally archived, feel free to move them back to the talk page.
Archive 1: Jun 2005 through about Aug 2005 Archive 2: Aug 2005 through early Jan 2006 Archive 3: Jan 2006 through early Jun 2006

Distinction between Fair Tax & National Sales Tax

It should be noted that the national sales tax should not redirect to the Fair Tax as the "Fair Tax" is just one very specific proposal created by a specific group of people and is only a type of national sales tax. Stevenmitchell 09:30, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree. It should be a disambiguation page. I'll try to find a description and look to see if we have any other National sales tax plans on wikipedia. Morphh 13:08, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

For the moment, I've redirected this to the Sales tax page as it was more appropriate. This page lightly discusses a National sales tax and includes information about the FairTax in the last paragraph. Morphh 18:39, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Other Effects Not Yet Discussed

How about the effect on the accounting and tax advisory industries? (From individual CPAs up through the big four firms) They would obviously be affected by a dramatic simplification of the tax structure. GRBerry 13:45, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

True - they would also be impacted by the additional savings and investment business. I'll see what I can dig up. Some may just be looking for new positions - highly educated people like them should be able do well though. We'll have to put tax lobbyists on suicide watch. Morphh 13:59, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Grassroots stub

In the past, I've been removing links to Grassroots sites such as "Hoosiers for the FairTax" and "FairTax Foundation". While they provide good information and applicable, it might be seen as POV. Some links that I've left are discussion groups which post questions for and against the FairTax in order to gain knowledge. The other links are NPOV as they link to the bill, author's site, scorecards, etc. I started thinking that perhaps we could create a FairTax Grassroots stub that discusses the history of AFFT, links to Grassroot sites, and large FairTax initiatives. Thoughts? Morphh 12:48, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

I just created a new article for Americans for Fair Taxation. Have a look and update as needed. Perhaps we can remove some of the links the FairTax article if this AFFT article looks ok. Thoughts? Morphh 03:29, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Book cover

Posting this from Tabacco's talk page:

Your alleged "Fairness" is disingenuous. The "Fair Tax" is the 3rd generation of "The Flat Tax" and "The National Sales Tax". The "Fair Tax" is a distinction without a difference. It has been dressed up to appear to be something it is not! It is a complete falsity, intended to dupe the public. Publicizing Neal Boortz is tantamount to extolling the virtues of Scientology. Both are merely for personal aggrandizement and profiteering of the facilitators. I take extreme umbrage at the promotion of Boortz's book here. This is nothing more than crass commercialism and disinformation. Tabacco

http://tabacco.blog-city.com/the_fair_tax_morphh_advocates_in_the_affirmative__tabacco_re.htm Tabacco

Note: I sent a post addressing many of the inaccurate statements but it was never posted by Tabacco. Morphh 00:32, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Certainly "Fairness" is relative, however, the plan was named by the people and not politicians. Most consider it much more "fair" then the current system. However, I don't believe you'll find anything in the article that claims it to be "fair". It is just the name of the bill. I'd like to see you defend the current system. The FairTax is the most transparent plan out there. I think your duping yourself making it some plot / conspiracy theory. Our current system is built on hiding the burden and deceiving the people. The FairTax is an alternative. It's not trying to dupe anyone - it is what it is. As for Boortz's book - what picture would you suggest for the article? The book doesn't need any promotion - it's a NYT bestseller. It is the most known media "image" of the FairTax plan. Nothing more nothing less. I've copied this to the aricle talk page in case others share your opinion or care to disagree. Morphh 00:32, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

This has escalated into an edit war over the inclusion of the book cover as the primary picture for the article. Please voice your thoughts on the issue for consensus.

Support book cover

To vote, please use the format: #~~~~ - <comments>

1. Morphh 12:55, 11 June 2006 (UTC) - The book was a NYT bestseller for several weeks and still in the top 15 of Non-fiction paperback. The book is co-authored by the bill author, Congressmen John Linder. It is the most known image of the FairTax plan and appropriate for the article.
2. Trevdna - Added the image to the article on 7 November 2005.
3. El Cubano 04:05, 12 June 2006 (UTC) - Tabacco's argument seems to be based on: 1) the idea that the Fair Tax is a deception; and 2) an ad hominem attack on Boortz. At best, that makes his argument very weak.
4. skeeJay 21:33, 12 June 2006 (UTC) - As an NYT bestseller, the cover of the book is easily associated with the legislation in popular culture, at least more than placing a photograph of H.R. 25 would be. I think it makes sense to consider the book to be representative of the movement at this point in time. If not in the summary, the picture should be somewhere on the page.

Oppose book cover

To vote, please use the format: #~~~~ - <comments>

1. Tabacco - Publicizing Neal Boortz is tantamount to extolling the virtues of Scientology. Both are merely for personal aggrandizement and profiteering of the facilitators. I take extreme umbrage at the promotion of Boortz's book here. This is nothing more than crass commercialism and disinformation.

Note: I have submitted Tabacco for violation of the 3RR. On his talk page, I've been charged with turning Misplaced Pages into a Propagandist website and that this entire Post is complete and utter disinformation. Interesting since he claimed on his blog that only the poor got the rebate and we would need receipts to collect it yearly. Talk about disinformation. Morphh 18:51, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Price drops

I would like some evidence of a non-monopoly market where prices did not approach the cost of production. Sorry, but instances of price fixing and government "regulation" don't count. I am talking about markets like the consumer PC market, the automobile market, etc. El Cubano 02:24, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree and have deleted the sentence. Such logic doesn't even make sense. I'd like to see a serious economist that makes such a claim. This is the basics of a capitalistic economy. Morphh 02:37, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Even if prices were a certain level higher then the cost of production, the markets of supply and demand would drive the price to maximize profit. Price maximization is not profit maximization. Profit margins should be maintained as they are set for profit maximization. Morphh 02:49, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Revenue-neutral rate studies

Modified recent entry to this section - The addition that AFFT has not released the studies is a good edit. However, much of the other information was POV and not applicable. The economists were members of the research team that studied the FairTax and the rate. The rates are presented in a number of publications. I have never heard of any of the economists refuting the figures. I've read several articles where some of these economists discuss the FairTax and they have not said anything about their rate being incorrect. In fact I just read a message from Laurence Kotlikoff that said a new study was going to be released and published that will show the bill rate to be more or less the correct figure. It is said to be a really well done study that should satisfy most critics. In the other section, the 1995 tax reform panel did not review the FairTax. The FairTax wasn't even a bill until 4 years later. Their review was far from the FairTax plan and is not an accurate or appropriate comparison. Morphh 17:31, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Naming problems

For economists, the FairTax proposal is explicitly the opposite - it is a regressive tax, which is also called an unfair tax (while progressive taxes are called fair taxes). Can this misnomer be reflected in the article?

The name FairTax is the name of the bill HR25. The article does not address "fairness" as this is a relative term. However, the plan itself was named by the people before it became a bill. As far as regressive / progressive, it is addressed in the section "Distribution of tax burden". The FairTax is regressive on income but progressive on consumption due to the rebate which is provided to all citizens. This creates a progressive effective tax rate the more you consume. We let the reader determine what they think is fair or unfair. Both points of view are presented. Morphh 02:39, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Pros/Cons Section?

There are criticisms littered throughout the article. I say they should get their own section. I don't know what to make of the whole thing (good/bad?) but being able to see pros/cons easily would be nice.Angrynight 23:04, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

This was discussed in Talk Archive2. I understand what your saying. It would be nice to look at a simple good/bad, however, the topics require enough explanation on each side to do justice. This is why each topic is broken down into sections where both pro and con are provided. For example, one side may say a con is that it is regressive with the other side saying a pro is that it is progressive. Pros and cons are dependent on the point of view and without any context or explanation it makes little sense. I think this format is better suited for this article. It provides each topic in a complete format with the debated points / effects. Morphh 00:46, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Sections that need sources

I'm moving some information to the talk page that requires sources. Normally, we would just add a cite needed tag but I wanted a clean article for WP:GA. Once sourced, we can move them back into the article. Morphh 14:41, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Financial markets

In general, FairTax would exert upward pressure on the value of most financial securities. Since a security's present value is based on all future cash flows adjusted for time, falling interest rates raise the present value of future cash flows. The effect on specific securities is indeterminate, however, because FairTax represents sweeping changes to the economy. The current pricing of financial securities includes assumptions that the basic rules of the tax code will remain largely unchanged. For example, FairTax will end corporate taxation. This eliminates the tax benefit which partially offsets many corporate expenses. In the case of non-cash expenses, they will reduce corporate earnings by their full amount rather than by the ~70% of their amount under the current tax regime. In another example, FairTax will cause investors to favor certain types of securities over others. Such cases illustrate that it is difficult to predict how the FairTax will affect the value of a single security or an asset class.

Effect on law enforcement and crime

Additionally, under the FairTax the relative profitability of collecting illicit income through illegal means such as extortion would decrease significantly, as doing so would no longer carry a tax advantage when illicit income is spent on most consumption goods. This effect could reduce the incentive to violate the law in these ways and reduce the rate of certain kinds of crime.

Implementation

The ability for the state to collect these heretofore-uncollected taxes would be a major incentive for states to conform their sales tax to the federal sales tax base. Retailers suffering from tax-free direct mail competition or from tax-free sales from out-of-state retailers would see a major competitive disadvantage removed. However, this would have the effect of discouraging consumers from purchasing items through the thriving mail-order and online industry, potentially hurting a multi-billion-dollar segment of the American economy.

GA Review

Note to GA reviewer: Most of the recent edits were cosmetic - copyedits, references, moving sections for better article flow, etc. We did have a slight problem with the book cover (reverts), however, I think we resolved this through the wiki process. Morphh 15:57, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Money Magazine Article

first, my apologies if im not posting this talk topic correctly, im new. I think a critical turning point in the FairTax debate has been overlooked byt his article, and ask for it's inclusion. an article in Money Magazine's October 2005 issue http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1229345.stm pointed out a logistical flaw in the plan, the double-counting of the benefit of removing embedded taxes towards both results of 1. lowering prices of goods and 2. allowing workers to recieve their entire paycheck (gross pay). This flaw has been exposed to the point that Boortz even addressed it in his Nealz Nuze on Sept. 15th 2005. http://boortz.com/nuze/200509/09152005.html i think this really needs to be addressed, as many supporters of the plan are falsly claiming that prices will remain the same AND they will receive all of their pay (Dr. Dale Jorgenson, the Harvard professor who did the mebedded tax study, is mentioned in the article stating this is not the case)

since i am unfamliar with the editing process i'd ask for someone else to create the section or mention. thanks JamieDangerously 20:08, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

You are posting correctly in the talk and I offer my welcome to Misplaced Pages. I don't believe this point is overlooked in this article. It is covered in the section Supporting theories of effect. The only reference to embedded cost figures is in this section and whenever embedded taxes are discussed, this section is referenced. So this article does not reproduce that misconception and accurately discusses the topic that you presented. Morphh 21:19, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

GA passed

This article is a nice one to read and is fully detailed with a bit of math here and there, well-balanced and has a nice prose. I would suggest working on the Lead section just to match every aspect of the article's content. Lincher 03:28, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

I'd also like to try and redo the sources to utilize the WP:CITET templates. Once we get these two things completed, I think we should try and nominate for FA. Morphh 13:12, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Distribution of tax burden

It appears to me that the Tax Pannel only compared Income Tax rates when using this comparison. It does not appear that they calculated in payroll taxes. 3/4 of Americans pay more in payroll taxes then income taxes. Morphh 02:58, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

According to the panel's report, the Treasury Department concluded that a 25-percent FairTax rate would not produce enough revenue to be revenue-neutral if all federal taxes were abolished. Thus, the panel considered only the effects of abolishing the income tax. If the payroll tax was included, the FairTax rate would have to be increased commensurately. It's all in the report. FCYTravis 06:23, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Since this article is getting very long (55k), using WP:SS should be a consideration. Until now, I didn't think we had any good sections that would fit this well. However, with the new additions to this section, we may be able to split this into its own article. Thoughts Morphh 03:32, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

I think it would make sense too to split the details of the "predicted benefits" and "indirect effects" sections into a separate article about "Predicted effects of the FairTax." FCYTravis 06:27, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

AFFT have said that their definitive study on the FairTax base and rate calculation by Beacon Hill Institute will be completed by July 31st, 2006. It addresses all the issues that have been raised about the FairTax rate and whether it is revenue neutral. In addition, Dr Laurence Kotlokoff did two studies; they will be published by the National Bureau of economic research. One is on the marginal and average tax rate under the FairTax compared to other alternatives. The overall effect on the economy is studied in much more depth than in prior studies. There were three macro studies done by 3 different economic research groups: Dr Kotlikoff's, Beacon Hill Institute (using a general equilibrium model) and Arduan, Lapher & Moore (using a supply side equilibrium model). IOW, three different economic models were used in order to diffuse criticisms that the results achieved were driven by the model. Beacon Hill also did a detailed study of the FT revenue base. That study indicated that the FT had the broadest base (which means it can have the lowest rate). That study also shows the tax distribution across all income groups. Another study is being done on evasion and enforcement. It is being done by Young & Associates (Dr. Nancy Young). It identifies certain key variables which influence the level of compliance (marginal tax rates, likelihood of audit, severity of penalties, etc) and concludes the FairTax is superior on most/all of these and would therefore have lower rates of evasion than alternatives. Should be interesting... Guess we'll be busy in August. Morphh 14:39, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

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Here's my thoughts: Once we get this little POV point-counterpoint hashed out, this article is not far away from FA. We need a good photo of a rally, or something, to illustrate the popular/political support section, I think it would make strong secondary art. We should consolidate some of the "effects" sections into a daughter article, Potential impacts of the FairTax or something - which will help us get the length and table of contents under control. Perhaps create a (doesn't have to be huge) section on the online groundswell of support for the proposal - how it's spread through the blogosphere, etc. Other than that, it looks good to go. FCYTravis 23:58, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

I created an article Predicted effects of the FairTax. I figured we would call the headline here "Predicted effects". I also created the one you specified above but I thought this one might fit better. I put Potential impacts of the FairTax in for speedy deletion as I was the only one that did anything. Morphh 00:46, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Ok - I moved all the Predicted benefits and Other indirect effects into the new article. I then created a rough draft summary of the contents, renamed the headline, added the summary and removed the main body. So, we have some clean up work to do but most of the heavy lifting is done. Morphh 19:37, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Inclusive/Exclusive terms

This was a debated point in the early history of the article (Talk:FairTax/Archive#.2811-August-05.29Tax_Exclusive.2FTax_Inclusive). I think I was for Inclusive / Exclusive but I was overruled. The main point was that the terms are a neologism. It was agreed to use common terms. I've now come to think it explains it better. Morphh 01:05, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, we have to have something that quickly explains the difference in layman's terms, and I think "inclusive" vs. "exclusive" comes the closest. What else would you call each system? I'm open to ideas... FCYTravis 01:10, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Those terms seem the easiest to me, however, I'm familar with the material. If I ask someone else what they ment, they would probably be clueless. At one point, we had a section that described inclusive and exclusive (I think this became Comparison of tax rates section). Even if we don't use those terms to describe the rate, I think we should have something in the Comparison of tax rates section that states these terms are often used to explain the concepts. ..., often called an "inclusive" rate, ... I'm not sure how to best explain it in layman's terms - perhaps we need to grab someone that is unfamilar with the concepts. I'll try to think of some ideas this weekend. Morphh 18:19, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Photos

Does anyone have any photos of a book signing, a pro-FairTax rally, etc.? I think they would be highly helpful in illustrating the groundswell of grassroots support for the proposal. FCYTravis 21:51, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

I know some websites that have some. I'll make a request for copyright release. Morphh 12:07, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

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