"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Thursday, June 09, 2005

DUMPING INCOME TAX FOR NATIONAL SALES TAX MOOTS MOST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION WOES

One of the reasons illegal immigration is bad is that most of the illegals don't pay taxes even though they use services - like roads; utilities; schools; and hospitals. They drain the public coffers and effectively cause tax rates (to citizens who do pay taxes) to be higher than they might otherwise be.

If instead of a "progressive" federal income tax we had a national sales tax (of let's say... 15%) then ALL illegals would have to pay taxes - they could not evade them. (WHAT IS MORE: this would effectively REDUCE the "take-home-pay" of the illegals and reduce the incentive they have to accept lower pay, and it would pressure employers who exploit illegals to pay them more; this in turn would put pressure on employers to raises wages for everyone.) To lessen the burden on poor citizens the federal government could send a refund to poor people amounting to 100% of their national sales tax; for instance a person earning $25,000 could get a refund of $3750.

Since illegals could NOT file for a refund, they be FORCED to contribute money back to the nation they currently give only their sweat to; (they send money OUT of the country - effectively "taxing" themselves to the benefit of other nations, notably Mexico: illegal immmigrants sending dollars back there are the SECOND leading source of income for Mexico (after petroleum).

Realistically, for a national sales tax to generate enough revenue for the federal budget it would either have to be about 20% on retail sales, or we'd have to tax more things than just retail. A 5% tax on EVERY TRANSACTION would generate enough - but taxing wholesale sales and stock purchases (as opposed to a tax merely on gains/profits) might be impossible to achieve. It's more likely that Congress passes tax reform bill which combines a low, flat income tax and a low, flat retail sales tax. This would only alleviate the illegal immigrant free-ride, noty eliminate it.

MORE ON TAX REFORM HERE - AT OTB; AND ALSO AT FAIRTAX.ORG.

1 comment:

Tom Hanna said...

You should check out the Fair Tax proposal. http://www.fairtax.org/