John Steele Gordon posted a good overview of the Fair Tax, noting, interestingly, that support for it seems to be helping presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.

Gordon points out that “the so-called progressivity of the tax code is an utter sham … It is the middle class, those dependent on a regular salary, that get socked. Warren Buffett has said he pays a lower tax rate than most people who work in his office.”

He goes on to mention some of the key advantages of the Fair Tax plan: “… The vast underground economy would no longer escape taxation, because the earners of that unreported and sometimes illegal income would get taxed when they spend it instead of when they earn it. The huge compliance costs of the current system, for both corporations and individuals, would disappear”

“… It would, to be sure, not be nearly as apparently progressive as the current income tax. But it would be even more progressive in fact”

Moreover, it would no longer penalize folks for saving, and the whole capital gains debate would go away, as would the horrible estate tax mess.

I suppose charitable contributions would be automatically “deductible”, since you wouldn’t pay tax on those expenditures, and I guess non-profits would be exempt from the consumption tax just as they are now for sales tax.

All in all, the Fair Tax plan really does seem like a FAIR tax, and a reasonable, simple, understandable PLAN. As Gordon suggests in his post, I hope it gets to be a major issue in the upcoming election.

Well, at least someone was thinking at the Houston Chronicle the other day. Their April 17th business section included an article (p. D2) on post offices that would take tax returns past the normal 5:30 cutoff, and how late they would be open.

To top it off, the Chronicle even printed a full-size form 4868 so readers could file for an extension (the form’s only about a quarter page). Now that was being helpful!