Not a big fan of the fair tax, I believe it is anything but fair
A sales tax only tax will hurt the poor and middle classes the most, They spend a larger amount of their income because they make less. So it would be a much larger % of their income going to taxes. I believe in a strait income tax on anyone making over 35k a year. The tax should include everything including capital gains.
Under the FairTax plan, NOBODY pays ANY tax on the first $30K of income. The FairTax includes a "pre-bate".... basically a rebate that would PAY everyone back for the taxes paid at the purchase for items up to the $30K income mark. So anyone earning under $30K will pay ZERO taxes.
The fact is that under the FairTax the poor people your concerned about would in reality pay far LESS taxes.
Capital Gains taxes DO NOT increase Govt. tax revenues. This has been proven repeatedly. The higher the capital gains tax rate, the less economic activity will take place as investors choose not to liquidate assets and re-invest in order to avoid the tax penalties.
I DO agree that a single flat tax rate would be better than what we have now. I have never understood how a democratic system can be expected to function properly when all citizens have the same single vote but the majority can gang up on the minority and force them to pay all of the taxes while the majority in fact pays little to no taxes. The top 50% of income earners in the US pay over 97% of the taxes. THAT is not fair.
Fang