This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It's tax time — time to renew our hatred of the Internal Revenue Service. How would you feel if no one ever had to pay income taxes again?
There is a plan to change the IRS from an income-taxing agency to a sales-taxing agency by replacing the entire federal income tax system with a national sales tax of 10 percent to 18 percent on all consumer goods, except food, soap, toilet paper, diapers and used/donated goods sold in thrift stores. The present 13,458-page tax code would shrink to less than five pages!
In this plan every citizen would pay some taxes, including corporations and the 47 percent who do not now pay any income taxes. Every consumer would pay at least a small amount, unless they choose not to buy anything, and thus feel some responsibility for maintaining our government.
Changing from federal income taxes to a national sales tax will be an unprecedented transformation of an obsolete system. It will create jobs for millions of people and lead to full employment. Call your congressional representative and ask for it.
Darrell Stoddard
Provo