Chairman's Report

AFFT board member Randy Fischer is the guest author of this week's Chairman's Report. In it, he explores an area that most people don't think about when they think of how the FAIRtax would benefit the country.

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 unco...

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 retu...

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...

Usually, the IRS looks to catch and punish those who are evading their federal income taxes. But you may be astounded to know that the IRS is actually helping the wealthy and well connected among us to skirt the law and evade millions of dollars in taxes. Read all about it in this week's Chairman's Report.

The income tax has always taxed our income as we receive it. Money we haven't actually received, like an increase in value of a stock we hold, isn't taxed until the stock is sold and we actually have the money in hand. But now, Congress is trying to tax us on these unrealized gains. This fall, the Supreme Court will decide if that's legal or not. If the Court rules in favor of the government, that...

Ideally, a tax code should focus exclusively on setting up the laws that define how a government will raise the revenue it needs to operate. Unfortunately, our Internal Revenue Code goes well beyond just raising the money the government needs to run. Congress has turned the Internal Revenue Service into a welfare agency. Check it out in this week's Chairman's Report.

This week's Chairman's Report is guest written by Tom Patterson. Tom is a member of the AFFT Advisory Board. His article makes a compelling case for replacing the income tax with the FAIRtax.

The IRS wants to implement an online system where people can file their tax returns electronically for free. Sounds like a good idea on the surface given that American taxpayers shell out millions of dollars every year getting their taxes done. However, there's a sinister goal lurking under all the rhetoric about making it easier and cheaper for taxpayers to file their taxes. Check it out in this...

Criminals stole at least a trillion dollars during the pandemic. Astoundingly, none of the additional $80 billion allocated to the IRS is earmarked for reducing fraud or even catching the thieves. Instead, the additional funding will be used to harass honest taxpayers in the name of catching tax cheats. Why would DC do this? Find out in this week's Chairman's Report.

It should come as no surprise that a recent Inspector General's report has found more problems at the IRS. Specifically, the IRS is failing to meet even minimum standards for care and efficiency, and it is not properly protecting the confidentiality of our personal data. These problems can't be fixed. The only real solution is to abolish the IRS by replacing the income tax with the FAIRtax.

Recently, newstrail.com published a wildly inaccurate report on the FAIRtax. This week's Chairman's Report is AFFT board member Jim Bennett's thoughtful response to that article.

Hunter Biden is definitely a member of the DC elite Ruling Class. So, it should come as no surprise that according to whistleblower testimony obtained by the House Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Biden ignored tax laws and failed to pay millions of dollars in income taxes. Sadly, this is far from an isolated incident illustrating the corruption inherent in our income tax code. It's time to replace a...

In yet another chilling story of the IRS threatening and abusing American citizens, this week's Chairman's Report details the harrowing experience suffered by Mr. Tom Van Hoose, a gun shop owner in Great Falls, Montana.

This week's Chairman's Report is guest written by Les Rubin. Les heads Main Street Economics Inc, a non-partisan, non-profit corporation dedicated to educating voters on a variety of economic and fiscal issues. In his article, he explains the relationship between the FAIRtax, the Federal debt and inflation.

In honor of the recent July 4 holiday, Americans For Fair Taxation presents a story about what Thomas Jefferson might think if he were to visit modern day America.

If anyone doubts the manner in which the 87,000 new IRS agents will be used, what happened to a Marion, Ohio woman is a scary wake-up call. This week's Chairman's Report documents an unbelievable story of lies, deceptions and threats aimed at an innocent taxpayer. It's one of the strongest reasons yet why we need to abolish the IRS by passing the FAIRtax.

Backdating is when you date a legal document to make it appear that you signed it earlier than you actually did. Backdating with the intent to deceive a court is a felony. But, if you're the IRS, you can apparently backdate documents and suffer no consequences. This week's Chairman's Report looks at just such a case. It's yet another reason why we need to replace the income tax with the FAIRtax an...