Chairman's Report

On Dec. 6, 2023, AFFT president Steve Hayes was one of several witnesses invited to testify before the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Tax. While some Members were clearly not ready to embrace the FAIRtax, the fact that Steve was invited to appear is a positive development.

Federal budgeting is a complicated process, and it's that way by design. Bureaucrats maintain their positions of power and authority by making things so complicated nobody can understand them. That way, people are all too willing to just let the "smart people" in the government worry about it. The FAIRtax would upset that apple cart. In this week's Chairman's Report, see how the FAIRtax would uncomplicate the budget process to the point that anyone with a calculator can understand it.

More and more states are providing ways for parents to send their children to charter, private and religious schools. Is that assistance taxable income? Under the income tax, the answer is not exactly clear. Under the FAIRtax, it's a clear and decisive "no".

The latest Social Security Trustees report contains some frightening information. Costs are vastly exceeding income and unless something is done, there are people alive today who will suffer a significant reduction in their Social Security benefits. DC's "solutions" have clearly not worked. It's time to fix the problem once and for all. It's time to pass the FAIRtax.

Three years after he leaked President Trump's tax return to the New York Times and thousands more returns from wealthy Americans to ProPublica, an IRS contractor has pleaded guilty to one count of disclosing tax return data without authorization. While it's great the leaker has finally been caught, the question remains. How can we be sure that the confidential data we must disclose on our tax returns stays confidential? The sad truth is that as long as the government has your data, it's not safe. If you want to ensure that your data isn't leaked, you should support the only tax reform plan that keeps your data out of the government's hands. You should support the FAIRtax.

Many older Americans rely on Social Security for the income they need to live. Unfortunately, the system is going broke. There's an easy and effective solution to the problem, but DC doesn't want to implement it. We the people are going to have to demand it. That solution is the FAIRtax.

The Internal Revenue Code is chock full of all kinds of special provisions that most of us don't even know about, but the super wealthy use to reduce their federal income tax liability. That's how billionaires get away with paying just a few hundred dollars in income tax, and it's all perfectly legal. If DC was serious about making everyone pay their fair share, they would enact the FAIRtax.

There is a world of difference between legally reducing your tax bill by taking advantage of provisions in the tax code, and illegally evading paying taxes that you rightfully owe. With illegal evasion costing the government over $1 trillion a year, it's time to replace the income tax with a system that is much harder to evade. It's time to enact the FAIRtax.

There are literally dozens of ways to evade the Federal income tax. Every year, the IRS publishes the 12 worst--the Dirty Dozen. The schemes on the list may change from year to year, but one thing that won't change is that people will continue to evade the income tax because it's so easy to do. It's time to get rid of the Dirty Dozen by replacing the income tax with the FAIRtax.

Imagine a high school pitcher trying to strike out a Major League Baseball batting champion. Or a high school basketball player trying to guard LeBron James. Well, that's just the kind of mismatch that newly hired IRS agents will find themselves in when they try to audit individuals and businesses who are represented by seasoned tax professionals. Anyone who thinks that hiring thousands of rookie agents is going to make much of a dent in the current level of tax evasion is kidding themselves. There's only one real solution. Replace the income tax with the FAIRtax.