Quick, how much tax did you pay last year?
Have a hard time answering that question? Me too. The income tax system is ridiculously complex, and thanks to the miracle of payroll withholding, most of us don't even know how much we're paying in taxes. (If you think of April 15th as "Refund Day", take a few seconds to read the "tax due" line on your return before you file it next year.)
I just finished reading The FairTax Book, which talks about replacing the income and payroll tax systems with a national sales tax. It's an interesting read, and more details about the plan are available on Wikipedia and FairTax.org. While I'm taking a grain of salt with some of the claims in the book, it's not hard to convince myself that it would be a huge improvement in the current tax mess.
Probably the biggest weakness in the plan is that it calls for people to have to political will to keep Congress in check. It seems self-evident at this point -- people who spend most of their day worrying about whether Brittney or K-Fed get the kids for the weekend aren't going to be involved enough to keep Beltway greed under control. But I don't think that's a reason to avoid making the change.
What do you think?
