It’s funny how we (the United States of America) went from "No taxation without representation" to "Taxation with Representation… and it’s confusing as a muthaf***a!" When I talked about "taxes" to anyone, the answer that usually follows the subject is "are you trying to spoil my lunch?" Taxes are pretty much as American as the proverbial apple pie and with the America in a recession, you think the government will try to reform something as complex as the tax codes… which is currently a 1,700 page book.

One idea is of course, the "Fair Tax" law, which will abolish the 16th Amendment, one that Woodrow Wilson signed into law in 1913… and later regretted it. In his seventh State of the Union Address, he predicted the complexity of the tax code and called to simplified it:

I trust that the Congress will give its immediate consideration to the problem of future taxation. Simplification of the income and profits taxes has become an immediate necessity. These taxes performed indispensable service during the war. They must, however, be simplified, not only to save the taxpayer inconvenience and expense, but in order that his liability may be made certain and definite.

Yep. These days, you can’t get away from the federal income tax… not even if you work in Antarctica (according to Smith v. United States, 507 U.S. 197 (1993))! There’s so many types of taxes, it would require a college course to understand it. (And I betcha there is one) So, how do we simplified the tax code? One idea is the Fair Tax, aka HR 25/S 1025. What is it?

The FairTax Plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue replacement, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment. This nonpartisan legislation (HR 25/S 1025) abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax – administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities. The IRS is disbanded and defunded. The FairTax taxes us only on what we choose to spend on new goods or services, not on what we earn. The FairTax is a fair, efficient, transparent, and intelligent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system.

This plan, while it sounds somewhat like a Utopian dream, it sounds possible. However, it’s hardly registered a beep on the political scale… as far as the Democrats are concerned. It was mentioned in the Republic Debates:

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