WASHINGTON — Representatives Gary Palmer (R-AL6) and Mo Brooks have signed on to co-sponsor this year’s Fair Tax bill in the U.S. House, signaling even more support from the Alabama congressional delegation for an overhaul of the tax code.
“The Fair Tax is a tax that abolishes the income tax, it denies the federal government the ability to snoop into American citizens’ incomes, savings, and bank accounts, while still producing the revenue that is needed to fund the federal government,” Congressman Brooks told Yellowhammer Wednesday.
Brooks said that in addition to being simpler, eliminating money wasted trying to figure out how much is owed to the IRS, and the IRS expenses associated with trying to stop tax fraud and collecting what is owed, he supports the Fair Tax because it “dramatically helps America’s economy by eliminating the income tax payment and compliance costs for America’s employers, which in turn drives up the costs of American goods and services, sometimes putting American employers at a competitive disadvantage in the face of stiff international competition.”
Brooks said the Fair Tax would lower the cost of the production of goods and services in the country by approximately 15-20 percent, making America more competitive, internationally.
The bill’s sponsor, Rob Woodall (R-GA7), calls the Fair Tax the piece of legislation he is most passionate about by far.
“The reason for this is that the FairTax isn’t about simply taxes;” Woodall said on his website, “it is about freedom, jobs, smaller government and the economy. It is about returning power to the people and finally finding a way to ensure America’s economic growth. It is about completely abolishing the IRS and stripping the Federal government of the opportunity to dig deeper and deeper in the American people’s personal pocketbooks.”
The idea of a Fair Tax has significant support across the country from conservative groups, including one group dedicated specifically to seeing the Fair Tax adopted, Americans for Fair Taxation (AFFT).
The bill, H.R. 25, now has 67 co-sponsors, which AFFT says is the best start they’ve had yet.
According to the AFFT website, The Fair Tax 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.”
Between the increased support for the Fair Tax this year, and Senator Richard Shelby’s introduction of a flat income tax under the SMART Act, it is clear that one of the goals of many Republicans in Congress this year is an overhaul of the complicated tax code.
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— Elizabeth BeShears (@LizEBeesh) January 21, 2015
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