Quote Originally Posted by Allen View Post
I agree that taxes should be paid in the form of sales tax. That way everyone pays.

As I mentioned before, I inherited a portion of land in Texas that had one producing oil well on it. For several reasons all of us who received the land sold it to avoid liability but retained the mineral rights. We paid property taxes before. Now we are charged about the same amount for the minerals under the property and pay taxes on any oil that is pumped. So, we're paying taxes for those minerals twice plus the new owners are paying property taxes on the land.
The problem with a sales tax is that it is regressive. Imagine a man who makes $40K a year. He has to spend it all to keep alive. At 30% (the usually suggested "national sales tax") he would be paying $12K a year -- a full 30% of his income.

Now imagine a man who makes $400k year -- he can't spend all that. He might spend $200k a year, and pay $60k a year in taxes, only 15% of his income. A sales tax is regressive and favors the rich.

I personally think we should pay the Fair Tax. Everyone pays exactly what I pay, to the penny.

Now some will say, "not everyone can pay that much."

And I reply, "they should be whipped until they do."