Why would anyone oppose the Fair Tax Act?

HR 25 I would like honest feedback on this. If you are not familiar with it you can Google it for more info.

It sounds like a good idea. Sen. Coryn introduced the bill and the key provision are as followed:
Repeals the federal income tax, including capital gain taxes, all payroll taxes, the estate and gift tax, and corporate and self-employment taxes, and enacts a federal retail sales tax;
Applies the tax only to the sale of new goods and services made to consumers; and
Provides every household a monthly rebate check to cover part of the sales tax paid on essential goods and services.

They have something like this in Europe called Value Added Tax (its like 16%). It sounds like a good idea, but one of the fastest growing service industries in the US is finance and that would potentially take skilled jobs away. Some European countries also give regular rebate checks also, but it is also harder to find competitve rates and the government has much more control on how prices go up and down.

Also, a lot of states would be slighted because now when people but something that has a state sales tax, a federal sales tax is tacked on, which could lower consumer spending more than it has already. texas has an 8% sales tax for everything, so just imagine how even 1% would suck and we can't forget big ticket items like automobiles. It is fair becasue you only pay federal taxes for things that you buy, but states still have the power to add additional taxes (like gas and water). I do not like Federal Taxes either, but I have been to Europe and a tax like this sucks, and at least th Federal Tax system accounts for people that cannot afford tax to be taken out of their check. The Fair Tax Act attacks everyone. This works in most states, but on the Federal Level it would also be harder to enforce. Most corporations are able to get around taxes, they have CPAs, accountants, brokers, and financers to help figure out strategies to get around taxes and increase cash flow and small businesses often qualify for many rebates. The best thing that this does is take away tax forms.

Because poor people are disproportionately affected by sales tax. For the very poorest, almost everything they spend would be taxed at 23%, while rich people would gain wealth through investments and pay no tax on that wealth. Since the act exempts business purchases, those people would then use their wealth to create businesses, make purchases for the businesses, and then never pay tax on it at all.

Because the wealthy pay far more than 23% of their income in taxes, while the poor receive more money from the government than they pay in taxes.

While a flat tax may "seem" fair, asking people who're living on the edge of poverty to pay 23% of their income in taxes while the rich who already have lots of disposable income pay a vastly reduced tax burden would be anything but.

HR 25 asserts that the majority of taxes should be gained through sales taxes. Sales taxes are "regressive taxes", that is, they hit the poor hardest since the poor must, by virtue of being poor, spend a greater share of their income on the necessities of life. Furthermore, hiking up the sales tax to, say, 30% or whatever it'll take isn't exactly going to do wonders for consumer spending. And what are we to do when consumer spending drops? We'll experience a budget shortfall. I'm certain that consumer spending drops much more dramatically than payroll when the economy tanks, but I'm not certain of that.

HR 25 seeks to repeal estate taxes which many people, including myself and many of our wealthiest citizens, find to be a cornerstone of the American way of life because they level the playing field and gaurd against the development of an aristocracy.

The idea of encouraging wealth and investment by eliminating the capital gains tax sounds nice on paper, but in practice its just another way for the rich to get richer without having to do a darn thing. People are already able to get rich just by virtue of having a fortune laying around. I don't see why we should create a system that allows them to get still richer by virtue of previous circumstances.

Finally, HR 25 will throw millions of lobbying, voting, wealthy upper income americans into the streets. Legions of tax lawyers, financial advisors and accountants will be without jobs. While buorgeois welfare isn't something we as a society are comfortable with, the influence of these people is going to be difficult to overcome.

Is that Huckabee's plan? I think that it's great.