The Fair Tax Act of 2005, Part III
Let’s start with section 201, which details the Sales Tax.
SEC. 201. SALES TAX.
(a) In General- The Internal Revenue Code of 2005 is amended by inserting before subtitle B (as redesignated by section 104(a)(2)(A)) the following new subtitle:
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`Subtitle A–Sales Tax
— `Sec. 1. Principles of interpretation.
— `Sec. 2. Definitions.
As I mentioned before the FairTax becomes the new subtitle A of the Internal Revenue Code. There are some headings for later sections here, which I won’t repeat (I’ll save time and just cover them as they are detailed in the bill).
Let’s cover section 1, which is pretty standard legalese for a bill:
SEC. 1. PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION.
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`(a) In General- Any court, the Secretary, and any sales tax administering authority shall consider the purposes of this subtitle (as set forth in subsection (b)) as the primary aid in statutory construction.
`(b) Purposes- The purposes of this subtitle are as follows:
– `(1) To raise revenue needed by the Federal Government in a manner consistent with the other purposes of this subtitle.
– `(2) To tax all consumption of goods and services in the United States once, without exception, but only once.
– `(3) To prevent double, multiple, or cascading taxation.
– `(4) To simplify the tax law and reduce the administration costs of, and the costs of compliance with, the tax law.
– `(5) To provide for the administration of the tax law in a manner that respects privacy, due process, individual rights when interacting with the government, the presumption of innocence in criminal proceedings, and the presumption of lawful behavior in civil proceedings.
– `(6) To increase the role of State governments in Federal tax administration because of State government expertise in sales tax administration.
– `(7) To enhance generally cooperation and coordination among State tax administrators; and to enhance cooperation and coordination among Federal and State tax administrators, consistent with the principle of intergovernmental tax immunity.
`(c) Secondary Aids to Statutory Construction- As a secondary aid in statutory construction, any court, the Secretary, and any sales tax administering authority shall consider–
– `(1) the common law canons of statutory construction;
– `(2) the meaning and construction of concepts and terms used in the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as in effect before the effective date of this subtitle; and
– `(3) construe any ambiguities in this Act in favor of reserving powers to the States respectively, or to the people.
This language basically states that the purposes listed above are to be considered authoritative and expressive of the intent of the law. Should any new statutes be created to add to or conform with this code, they should follow the purposes stated here and not run counter to them. Lots of bills have legalese in them like this to attempt to protect the original intent of the bill.
It also provides some assistance should the primary code not answer any questions needed for making new laws. They can refer to the older code as necessary to handle definitions or situations left over from the previous tax system. There shouldn’t be many, but this gives the government the option to maintain some older policies until such time as the income tax is totally phased out (i.e. no further pending litigation in courts, IRS totally phased out, etc).
