My FAIRTAX Story - Paul Wizikowski
April 20, 2009 · Filed under: Uncategorized
What does the FairTax mean to you? To Paul Wizikowski it means potential restored and ambition rewarded.
Another great video from FairTaxHub
10 Responses to “My FAIRTAX Story - Paul Wizikowski”
Very well done commercial. Much better than the Joe-the-Plumber nonsense, but still it’s just slickly-packaged hype. Al that’s missing the the American flag waiving in the background.
Would someone tell this guy why he’s complaining that out current tax system doesn’t give him a fair shake when we created the strongestt economy in the world under an income-based tax system?
I like the Phil Hendri piece that’s alos on the FairTax hub much better. (”Tell me again why we’ll be sending pre-bate checks to criminals?”)
Hmm... I can’t view the video right now as I’m at work right now. You did mention something though that caught my interest. ”Tell me again why we’ll be sending pre-bate checks to criminals?”
This is absolutely something that I would love to see revised. The prebate checks should be suspended for anyone serving time in a penal facility. Personally, I think that all moneys suspended as such should be automatically applied to paying down the national debt. This would mean that those serving time would actually be contributing in a meaningful way to society.
Scott — Actually, Hendrie’s point was that we would be sending prebate checks to drug dealers and other members of the “underground economy” who the FairTax was supposed to be taxing.
Scott, these limitations are in the bill already. According to Sec 302(b)(2)(B), to receive a prebate check you must “be a lawful resident of the United States.” If you’re incarcerated, in soap nazi speak - no check for you. Those found guilty of actions of drug charges are penalized based on the situation, which may or may not include losing a prebate or forfeiture of illicit income and property. The courts draw this line based on the charges. Those not arrested are innocent until proven guilty. I don’t expect anyone would want to remove that rule of law. I also don’t expect we would pull someones prebate check for some small dope deal, although I’m sure the courts could arrange it if they felt it proper - that’s their role, not the tax code.
Thanks for the explanation there Morphh. I have only read portions of the actual legislation since the bit I read made my head want to explode. I really don’t see how politicians can read and write things like that.
Hayden... You forget that one of the biggest components, if not the biggest, is the illegal immigrant population. These individuals are not “lawful residents”, and therefore would not be receiving the FairTax prebate. This is one of my favorite pieces of the bill actually. If Congress and law enforcement are not actually going to do anything about illegal immigration, at least this makes an effort to collect tax revenues from these immigrants without rewarding them further for their illegal actions. Now of course we come back to the argument about these people evading the system, but they are still going to have to buy groceries and pick up from McDonald’s, etc.
Scott –
The “illegal immigrant component” is one of the biggest myths of the FairTax, which is routinely promoted by a certain talk radio host who knows better. When you actually do the numbers, though, you will find that “there’s no there there.”
In the first place, MOST illegal immigrants work in legitimate businesses, where they have taxes withheld from their paychecks just like US citizens. (Sure, you see some illegals hanging out in the street for day-jobs being paid under the table, but that’s actually a small minority of illegals in the country.)
As an employer, I can assure you that I am better off paying an employee above-the-table, because I can deduct their wages from my income. If I pay them under-the-table, I can’t deduct their wages and I run the risk of getting fined or worse.
Payroll taxes alone (both the employer and employee side) equals 15.3% of pay. So, assuming each illegal immigrant has a faimly income of $20,000 per year. that totals about $3,000 per illegal family we get every year in taxes under our current system. (I’m assuming they don’t pay any federal income taxes, only social security and Medicare taxes.)
The highest estimate I’ve ever seen of illegal aliens in this country is 12 million. If that translates into 4 million illegal families, then we are currently collecting $12 Billion in federal taxes from the illegal alien population.
Now, let’s look at illegals under the FairTax. Assume they continue making $20,000 per family annually. Now, do they buy new homes and new cars? No. Do they buy new furniture, take vacations to the beach, go skiiing? No. Are they suddenly going to start buying health insurance? No. So, what are they going to spend their money on? Used cars, used furniture, second-hand clothes. If they buy a house, it will not be a brand new house. If they rent an apartment, they will probably pay cash (so it’s likely that the landlord would not remit the 23% to the government.) In other words, very little of what illegal aliens purchase would be subject to the FairTax.
Now, what else do illegals do with the money they make? They send part of it back to their family back home. They save as much as they can. And they periodically take trips back to their home country to visit their family. None of that would be taxable under the Fairtax.
Nevertheless, let’s assume that illegal aliens spend HALF of their incomes on TAXABLE goods and services under the FairTax. That translates into $10,000 x 23% per family in taxes, or $2300 per family. Multiply that by 4 million families, and we would get $9.2 Billion in tax revenue from illegal aliens under the FairTax. , whichi s about $3 Billion LESS than we get under our current system.
Finally, assume I am wrong about illegal aliens being taxed under our current system. And let’s further assume that each illegal alien family were to spend 100% of its income on TAXABLE goods and services under the FairTax. That would translate into tax revenue of approximately $18.4 Billion that we get from illegal aliens under the FairTax. That comes the less than 0.5% of the total $3.7 Trillion federal budget.
You can play with the numbers all you want. Double the illegal population. double their wages. Double their spending. The money’s just not there. In other words, it might make good talk radio to say we’ll tax illegal aliens under the FairTax, but when you actually do the numbers you’ll find they don’t amount to a hill of beans.
Hayden,
Where are you getting your information? I live in a neighborhood with 95% hispanic population. Some are legal, but many are not. I didn’t think there was a way that the illegals could be legal taxpayers. Let me know how it’s done, my neighbors would like to know. I think you are discounting the millions of under the table workers and how the current system keeps them in poverty regardless of their residency status.
The money component isn’t the only thing here though. I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but it’s the principle of the thing. The idea that the first thing these immigrants do when they walk across the border is to break our laws. Even if they are somehow having taxes withheld, and I’m not sure exactly how that happens without a social security or taxpayer ID number, it would still be done illegally or at best skirting the edge of the law. The FairTax at least means that these illegals are paying into the system in a manner that is not in and of itself illegal.
I’m always curious about how illegals are paying taxes. If these immigrants are paying taxes, then why the vast discrepancy in estimating their numbers? If they are paying taxes, we should be able to count exactly how many of them there are. If they are paying taxes, we should know exactly where they are employed and be able to take actions based upon this.
Here is another interesting nugget to consider... The lower the household income, the greater percentage of that income the family spends on necessity items like food, diapers, etc. I know you are fond of stating how people will avoid paying taxes by purchasing used good, but I don’t think you are going to find many people desperate enough to start buying used food.
Scott and RMForbes –
I, too, wondered how so many illegal aliens could be working here for legitimate businesses. A friend of mine who’s a business owner in a heavily Hispanic community told me how it works.
Illegal aliens simply use fake social security numbers when they apply for a job. The employer pays them, withholds their taxes, and sends the the withholding tax on to the federal government.
After a few months, the government sends the employer a notice stating that the social security number does not exist or is a duplicate of another number. The employer then goes to the employee, who changes a digit, claiming the original number was a mistake, and process continues.
This can go on for years. If the employer eventually fires the illegal employee, the employee just goes down the street and finds a new job and repeats the whole process.
The reason my friend brought this to my attention was that the State of Georgia (and other states) passed a law cracking down on the hiring of illegal aliens (which, frankly, I think states should have done a long time ago.) This puts employers in a bit of a jam, however, because it is also illegal to discriminate based on race or national origin. So my friend was between a rock and a hard place. (He since sold his business.)
Now that the economy is in a recession and more states pass similar laws cracking down on illegal aliens, I believe the problem will take care of itself. But, when we come out of the recession, people are going to start bitching about how the price of so many items — from houses, to agriculture, to general labor — have risen since all the illegals were driven out. But, that’s a topic for a different board.
Hayden, you described exactly my concern with regards to illegal immigrants. I understand the issue surrounding fake SS numbers. For me, it’s bad enough that the first thing these immigrants do on crossing our border is to break our laws. Making matters worse is the fact that these individuals are quickly taught that to get a job, which is what they came here for in the first place, they must continue breaking the law. Lie on the job application and come up with a fake SS number. Then our federal government only makes a token effort to enforce the laws that they are breaking. However, if I were to use a fake SS number to evade taxes and the IRS got hold of that information I would very quickly find myself enjoying the scenery from inside a concrete box with bars for doors and windows.
I suppose this is simply the thread for digression.