Scrap the IRS? National Sales Tax Promoted as Fairer System
WASHINGTON — The IRS and all payroll taxes should be scrapped and replaced with a national sales tax (search) that would require the poor to pay nothing, some tax reform advocates are proposing as an ideal plan to rejigger the U.S. tax code.
The proposal has been gathering strength among leading lawmakers, and the issue has made its way into the presidential campaign and at least one key Senate race.
Rep. John Linder (search), R-Ga., has been promoting a national sales tax for years. He said he is gaining more and more allies on Capitol Hill, including members of the Republican leadership.
Linder, a six-term representative, dismisses the central criticism of a national sales tax — that it would disproportionately tax the poor — by saying they would be exempted. But critics say Linder's plan is a little too neat, that his math does not add up and that it would be impossible to exempt the poor...