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Bill Pelland · Joined: 25 Feb 2008 07:34 am Posts: 425

James Killen - Thank you for your input. Let me explain why having the state of Texas collect the tax is a bad idea and why the yearly registration should scare you.

1. The federal government will shift the burden of tax collection and audit to the state without funding this except for a paltry 1/4 of 1% of the tax collected. This bothers me because it means the state will have to either not audit effectively or raise taxes to perform what the federal government is mandating. (another unfunded federal mandate)

2. A homeowner who pays a gardener, contract labor for repairs, housekeeping, etc becomes the tax collecter and must remit the money to the State unless they get a receipt showing the housekeeper is collecting the money as a business with license. This places a burden of record keeping on the home owner and without the records the state has the authority to garnish wages or place liens on the property.

3. Businesses that have sales of more than 433,000 per year will have to collect and deposit the receipts to the state weekly and then the state must send the money to the federal government weekly. This will require and increase of staff in both situations thus affecting the amount of money saved and the state collection staff. The system also requires a deposit of up to 100,000.

4. State of Texas will have to conform to Federal tax program for their sales tax thus food and all services will not only experience a 30% (not 23%) tax from the Fed but all services will also be taxed 8.25 % from Texas. Read the other letters on this subject for how 23% became and is 30%.

5. Government services will be taxed and so property tax, drivers license fees, and most everything will be taxed.

6. The Social Security Administration will be responsible for distributing the month prebate checks but only to those who have submitted the SS numbers of everyone in the household. Additional if you move you must notify the federal govt of your new address. How close do you think this is to a national id system like in Nazi Germany. Those who do not learn from their mistakes are bound to repeat them.

7. The prebate check is based on the poverty level plus a small amount. The claim is businesses will save and you will save enough to cover the difference. The problem is business will not save that much. View some of my other letters.

8. This economy rises and falls on consumer spending. The fair tax will decrease consumer spending because the claims of lower prices are flawed. We will spend more but a mojority will go to taxes.

9. Retired people and baby boomers ready to retire will be hit hardest. In effect they will be paying social security taxes out of their retirement checks. They have already paid their income taxes and social security taxes over their lifetime. They should not have to pay them again.

10. A single person living on social security will receive a prebate of approximately 350.00 per month. If she is now surviving on say 2000.00 a month her new cost will be 2600.00. Where will she or he get the extra 250.00. This also decrease consumer spending and increases public aid expenditure.

If you engage in the debate then I would ask you to go read the bill; not the spin put out by the fair tax websites. The senate bill sponsored by John Cornyn and others is s1025.

Finally James, I have written another letter to the editor that hopefully will be published soon. It shows what a couple claiming 2 exemptions and taking the standard deduction actually pay. A couple in this situation making 250,000 will only pay about 22-23% of their income in income taxes. With addition deductions such as your 3 children without any other credits their tax decreases from 55,925 to 52,559 or 21 % of their 250,000 income.

We often think the income tax is unfair because it is progressive. I disagree because I believe where much is given, much is expected. This is a Christian view and a practical view. This is the system that has allowed us to spread electricity to every rural home, to build the national interstate highway system Eisenhower called for after world war II, help us lead in the space race, and so on.

Often we spend too much time worrying about the other guy that doesn't pay but consider the situation where the concregation notices that the first to receive the collection plate pays nothing and so no one else pays either. We should build a community as we have done throught out our history that advances our way of life. When we worry only about the negatives of who is not paying we only hurt ourselves.

This is why I support Obama for president and Noriega for US senate. We need to turn the country back towards the middle. The extremism of this past eight years have done considerable damage to this country.

Bill Pelland
Murchison, Tx

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