Disingenuous, self-serving and ill-informed arguments
The only arguments opponents have to counter the logic of the Fair Tax are either disingenuous, self serving, ill informed, or emanate from the "hate the rich at any cost" crowd, willing to suffer themselves as long as the wealthy take one in the head.
What About my Earned Income Credit??
Objection: What about my tax refund. I don’t pay any income taxes and get about $4,000 every year as an earned income tax credit because I don't earn much money. I look forward to my refund every year. Why would I want to lose that?
Answer: First or all, you are not getting a refund. By definition, a "refund" is a "return of some or all of a previously made payment". Since you did not make a payment of tax, the refund sent from the government must be something else. Let’s call it what it is - government subsidy. Your government checks will more than likely increase. The prebate will replace it and will come every month instead of once a year. If for example, a family of four any age would receive about $500 per month. $500 X 12 = $6,000. You just wouldn't get it at the end of the year because you would file no taxes. Your personal inability to budget this prebate responsibly is not a rational variable in this argument.
If you are one of those people who are outraged that this helps not only the poor but the wealthy too, I have a response to that too. You are not anyone I care about. If you are not satisfied with having a better opportunity for yourself and more money in your pocket for your family unless the wealthier among us correspondingly suffer as a direct result of your good fortune, (If you wish for Boris' goat to die) well, I guess this wouldn't be for you - and please move somewhere else. We will take up a collection for airfare to any other country you like.
Both the poor and the wealthy will benefit from the Fair Tax. The poor benefit more, but the wealthy benefit too. If you are willing to sacrifice yourself so that the wealthy continue to experience onerous taxation, maybe you should reevaluate your own priorities. To intentionally support a system that sacrifices yourself and your family just so that others will continue to suffer ever greater difficulty and wealth confiscation is a morally corrupt and ethically fraudulent position to maintain.
Hypocritical Professionals
There are those who profit handsomely yet indirectly from the current system. I admit that I am one of them. I have been offering tax advice and preparing income tax returns for over 30 years. As an Enrolled Agent I know first hand how unreasonable, unintelligible and ludicrous our tax laws are - but I make money working with them. Should I argue that there would be more cheating under a sales tax replacement format? We can cheat now. Certainly I would lose a lot of income should the fair tax be enacted - does that make it right for me to suggest it wouldn't be better – when it is?
I work with taxes because I am good at it, not because I believe they are right. I actually enjoy it because I get to legally help people keep money away from the government. The IRS is oppressive, yet I am better off because of them. I help people avoid them, and they pay me to do that.
Unfortunately many professionals in the field, Enrolled Agents, CPA's Attorneys, and tax preparers who make money from the current insane system often argue that although it isn't perfect, our current tax code is better than any other system in the world. It isn't. So we look to glom onto one of the disingenuous arguments against the fair tax; it will take away the mortgage deduction or eliminate the credits such as the earned income credits, college tuition, energy saving, - which is much of what is wrong with the system in the first place. We know better - or at least the more educated among us do.
Any professional tax person with any experience who opposes the fair tax does so for personal gain, or they are not very good and don't really understand what they do. This is not enlightened self-interest, it is just plain ill-advised selfishness.
Arguments extolling the benefits for the wealthy are enumerated by the opponents. They want to enrage the poor so they will not support this law. Yes, the wealthy will benefit - but the poor will benefit even more because many of them are looking for jobs. Employment opportunities will rise appreciably and benefit the poor far more than the wealthy – who already have good jobs. They forget that part because it is not in their interest to remember it. Very few people ever got a job from a poor person.
Serve thyself
As we mentioned, the low income citizens of this country who receive benefits would receive even greater benefits under the Fair Tax. They oppose it as a group because they are intentionally misinformed, and they don't bother to find out the truth.
Congressmen oppose it because it would usurp much of their power. Should a fair tax be implemented, there would be no deductions. There would be no income tax from which to deduct them. No lobbyist from Iowa would wine and dine a congressman in order to obtain farming credits for planting wheat instead of corn, or for planting nothing instead of wheat. There would be no line on the tax form to take a credit for making fuel derived from grain which no one wants to buy and damages engines. There would be no accelerated depreciation deductions for power equipment over a certain weight because a manufacturer of large equipment has a senator's ear. There would be no tax incentive for buying a crappy new car because General Motors is in trouble again. On and on it goes.
In order for us to have a tax code which makes sense and is a benefit rather than a drain on our economy in relation to other nations, we need congress on board. Citizens can't create tax law.
If the Fair Tax were implemented, maybe congressmen wouldn’t want to stay as long, and so would do more of the right things for us. Congress would not be as lucrative for them without the ability to game the tax code for their supporters. Precisely because of this, it is unlikely they will offer to pass the Fair Tax. A law that limits their own power and influence is not apt to get a lot of support in the hallowed halls of a corrupt congress.
On the other hand, if their terms were limited it would benefit the congressmen themselves and their own families to pass it so that when they must leave, they will be able to live under a more reasonable and understandable tax and economic system.