What is income?  It sounds like a simple question, but when the Internal Revenue Code enters the picture, it gets really complicated really fast.

In their weekly look at proposed changes to the tax code, the FAIRtax Guys have run across hundreds of bills that would exempt certain income from taxation or remove that exemption from other kinds of income.  With the FAIRtax, it’s simple.  The FAIRtax applies to the retail purchase of all new goods and services.

Ask 50 different tax preparers what a particular family owes in income tax and you’ll get 49 different answers.  With its ever changing myriads of exemptions, deductions, exclusions and credits, it’s impossible to predict what you’ll owe in income taxes.  But with the FAIRtax, a very simple calculation can determine your tax liability with incredible accuracy.

This week, John Gaver joins the FAIRtax Guys to show off a simple calculator he developed that shows exactly what anybody’s tax liability will be under the FAIRtax.

IRS Publication 17 is a comprehensive guide designed to help taxpayers fill out their income tax returns correctly.  In reality, it’s 142 pages detailing why the income tax is a hopelessly complicated mess that needs to be thrown out and replaced with the FAIRtax.

It’s also Bob Scarborough’s favorite reading material.  (Yeah, right).  Join the FAIRtax Guys as they delve into the latest version of Publication 17 and expose once again what a tangled mess the Internal Revenue Code really is.

Labor unions were spawned when employers imposed oppressive working conditions on their workers.  The Internal Revenue Code has spawned a union of its own in the National Taxpayers Union.  The NTU keeps an eye on Congress and rates its members on how their votes affect the taxpayers’ pockets.

This week, the FAIRtax Guys examine the NTU scores for the 26 Congressional representatives who are current cosponsors of the FAIRtax bill.

Imagine ordering a dish in a restaurant that’s supposed to come with two sides.  But, when your server brings your order, there’s only one.  You’d notice that immediately and insist that she bring your second side.  You want to get everything you paid for.

But when you get your paycheck and a big chunk of it is missing, you don’t seem to mind.  You probably don’t even notice that it’s gone.  That’s withholding.  And that goes away with the FAIRtax.

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst has uncovered a dirty little secret—there are thousands of people who work for the IRS who collectively owe millions of dollars in unpaid taxes.  With illegal tax evasion standing at around $1 trillion a year, you’d think that the IRS would at least make sure its own workforce was abiding by the law, but that’s clearly not the case.

This week, the FAIRtax Guys go over a letter that Senator Ernst sent to the Commissioner of the IRS demanding action.  Of course, the only way to completely clean up the problem would be to replace the income tax with the FAIRtax and eliminate the IRS entirely.

Kamala Harris has picked up on Donald Trump’s idea of exempting tips from the income tax.    Clearly, both candidates are trying to woo votes from workers in the service industries who rely on tips for their living.  But what happens if you carry that idea even farther and stop taxing income altogether?

This week the FAIRtax Guys examine an article published on fairtax.org detailing what happens to the economy if we switch from taxing income to taxing consumption.  Here’s a hint:  The economy takes off like wildfire.

The FAIRtax would represent a seismic shift in the paradigm of how taxes are collected in this country.  Consequently, there are bound to be questions and criticisms regarding how the FAIRtax would work and the impact it would have on the American taxpayer.  Some are honest, some are rooted in a vested interest in keeping the current income tax system.

This week, the FAIRtax Guys conclude their journey through Boortz and Linder’s original FAIRtax book by covering some of the questions and objections noted in Chapter 15.

Over the years, the IRS has been described in a number of different ways.  Kind, understanding and co-operative are not on the list.  Instead, you’ll hear words like unreasonable, vicious, malicious, high-handed and vindictive.  Some have even labeled the agency as a criminal enterprise that operates with a flagrant disregard for the law and without regard for basic human decency.

This week, the FAIRtax Guys review chapter 14 of the FAIRtax book in which Boortz and Linder detail some of the maddening, frustrating and even tragic encounters people have had with the IRS.

Social Security and Medicare are two incredibly popular Federal programs that millions of seniors have grown to depend on in their retirement years.  There’s only one problem.  Both are going broke and politicians in both parties have been reluctant to make the tough changes necessary to bring them back to solvency.  No one is going to get re-elected by promising to cut benefits or tighten eligibility requirements.

Fortunately, chapter 13 of the FAIRtax book has the solution.  Change the funding source from just those people working for a paycheck to everybody who buys things beyond their basic necessities.