Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Letter to the Editor of the Month Award

Sorry about the past couple days of not posting. The labor day weekend really put me behind but I am back and ready to go. I wanted to start off the new month with a recent Letter to the Editor I read from a FairTax supporter. It is a good letter because it is short, succinct, and hooks ya. Since taxes isn't the most sexy issue to discuss (although the FairTax is bringing "sexy back") a good hook is crucial to spur readers and editors interest. So big props to Mr. Patton for his help!! This was published in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on September 5, take a look.

Taxing fair

I would like to pose the following questions to Trib readers:

Would you be in favor of eliminating the federal income tax and the Internal Revenue Service?
Would you like to abolish all federal personal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, self-employment and corporate taxes?
Would you like to diminish, if not eliminate, the lobbyists who roam the halls of Congress?
Would you like to bring home the gross pay from your paycheck, not the net pay?
Would you like to see criminals who make huge sums of illegal money at least pay taxes on this ill-gotten income?
Would you like to see illegal aliens pay a fair share of taxes?
Would you like to see American manufactures have a more level playing field by taxing goods made outside of the U.S.A.?
Would you like to see companies that have moved out of the U.S.A. return to our shores and create more jobs for Americans?
If these questions spark your interest, you should be interested in a group called Americans for Fair Taxation. Visit the group's Web site at
www.FairTax.org and get an in-depth report on how all of this can take place.

Dennis Patton
Meadville

Friday, September 01, 2006

Congress.org's Poll's says FairTax BEST IDEA!

This just shows you that the support is a top issue. Let's keep up the good work and make Congress and the rest of America aware of the FairTax!

YOUR IDEAS: LAST CHANCE TO TELL CONGRESS
This month you offered ideas and people told Congress what they thought of them. You can still weigh in by selecting your view. Then vote for the idea you think Congress should adopt by clicking once on the "Best Idea" link next to your favorite. Results of voting for best idea so far: 9,512 votes
- 14% Raise the Minimum Wage Every Four Years
- 30% Replace All Taxes With a National Sales Tax
- 13% Drug Tests for Those on Unemployment/Welfare
- 10% Constitutional Amendment - Right to Privacy
- 11% Remove All Overseas Troops and Put on U.S. Border IDEA -
- 22% No Pay for Congress When Approval Under 50%

The Tax code at work

This was a CBS report on one families nightmare dealing with our tax code.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

And the winner is.......the IRS

Ok, I'm not going to lie I'm not a big fan of the big hoopla with all the award shows. To tell you the truth I'd rather watch MSNBC than hear analysis concerning Kiefer Sutherland's outfit while he walks down the red carpet, but I digress. Apparently I am in the minority on this matter as even the IRS has become interested in the Emmy's. As I read more and more about what is and what can't be taxed I am becoming exponentially more confused. Apparently a gift is only taxed if a gift is actually meant to be a gift and not a gift for motives ungiftlike. Or something like that. Many of the Emmy atendee's were advised to not take the gifts because the tax consequences were too high. Darn, welcome to the real world and what we all have to deal with because of the complexity of our tax code.

From: USA TODAY

Stephen Collins (7th Heaven) chose not to take the gift bag this year
because of the tax consequences. "Just my luck. I'm finally able to
get one and this happens," he said.

As for SNL's Tina Fey: "No, I am not going to take it. My accountants
told me the taxes were too high, and I live in New York, so they have
to send the stuff — and a lot of stuff you don't get anyway."


One actor felt that the IRS was singling Hollywood out because of their high profile. Ummm... excuse me are you kidding me?

Several stars said they wouldn't accept, including 24's Gregory Itzin
"I refused. I wanted to shortcut that whole problem. It's foolish. It's
focused on us because we're so high-profile."

Yeah, that's it Greg it has nothing to do with the gift basket being worth more than most people make a year. Who is Gregory Itzen anyways?

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Federal Appeals Court ruling may push tax reform

Interesting read from Bruce Bartlett's column:

"Last week, a federal appeals court in Washington handed down an important decision relating to the definition of income for tax purposes. What is important about the decision is that it is the first one in decades saying that the Constitution itself limits what the government may tax. If upheld by the Supreme Court, it could significantly alter tax policy and possibly open the door to radical reform. "

His column goes on to explain how tax scholars around the country predict this will open the flood gates for challenges to what can be deemed taxable income. This should be interesting to watch as more rulings get handed down concerning the income tax. This is going to get ugly, but might be just the ruling to help the FairTax become an even more timely issue.

Letter to the Editor of the Month Award

I am going to be posting the best published letter to the editor each month in hopes of showing everyone effective examples of letters to the editor and to give props to the individual writers for a job well done. This month’s winner is Mr. Jay Herrell of Las Vegas who had this published on August 15th by the Las Vegas Review. It points out perfectly a very fundamental crux of the FairTax and why it is works. Good job Jay, for his achievement we will be sending Jay the Ronco Set-it-and-forget-it Rotisserie. Keep up the good work!

Consumers always pay

To the editor:

John Brummett's Sunday column says the federal Fair Tax proposal "would do away with corporate income taxes and replace them with a sales tax that only consumers, but not businesses, would pay. That's an irresponsible, even immoral, shift of tax burden from corporations to consumers."Mr. Brummett must have graduated from Berkley with a degree in literature, because he obviously never took Economics 101. When a corporation pays a tax, there is only one source for that revenue stream: the consumer who walks in and plunks his money down for the product or service the corporation provides. Corporations never pay income taxes, only the consumers and the owners of the corporation pay income taxes! In fact, if a "corporation" pays any form of income tax to anyone, the owners of the corporation pay income taxes twice (once on the business they own and again on their personal income) but the consumer ends up paying the whole bill.Wouldn't it be better if the consumer knew exactly what the tax bill really was?