Letter to the Editor: Be fair about FairTax
Update 2010-06-03: This was letter was published in the Tribune-Review on Wednesday, June 2, 2010.
Sent via email 14 May 2010 to USAToday, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Beaver County Times, New Castle News, and the Sharon Herald
Recently, nationally funded ads have mislead Pennsylvanians about the FairTax. These ads claim that the FairTax will add 23% to the cost of everything. This is true, but the ads omit the most important part of the tax reform plan.
What these ads irresponsibly fail to address is that the FairTax would fully rid citizens and businesses of income taxes, federal payroll taxes, inheritance and estate taxes, capital gains tax, social security and pension taxes, and the “marriage penality”. Additionally, it fails to mention a key provision: the prebate, a pre-refund of all taxes paid up to the poverty level, which amounts to $500 per month to a family of four.
Personally, I’d pay about 5% less tax with FairTax.
FactCheck, a nonprofit and non-partisan information verification agency set up by UPenn, agrees, calling these ads “false and misleading“.
While I appreciate the attention to the FairTax, it’s important that people know the facts and realize that they’d have more money to spend because they wouldn’t have any income tax taken out of their paychecks, plus the prebate gives another $500 per month, enough for food, or perhaps a car payment, or an iPad, whichever they deem fiscally responsible for their own needs.
laptop keyboads:
$500 per month, i can accepte it
23 May 2010, 11:36 pm