Chairman's Report

The IRS assures us that the financial data we submit on our income tax returns is held in the highest confidence. Unfortunately, the reality is that our confidential data is a LOT less secure than the IRS would have us believe. In an eye-opening Chairman's Report, AFFT president Steve Hayes looks at just how loosely the IRS is guarding our most personal private data.

In this week's Chairman's Report, former Congressman and original FAIRtax sponsor John Linder answers several common questions about the FAIRtax.

Artificial intelligence is becoming more and more a part of our lives. Today's computers are simulating human intelligence in a way undreamed of just a few years ago. But one thing remains constant. Computers can't actually think. They have no emotions. They can only objectively evaluate known data. Recently, AFFT board member Randy Fischer asked ChatGPT what it thought of the FAIRtax. The answer was quite revealing. Check it out in this week's Chairman's Report.

Elites and ordinary Americans have vastly different levels of trust in the government--around 16% for ordinary Americans up to 89% for Ivy League super-elites. With government made up largely of elites who covet as much control over our lives as they can get, it's no wonder that they want to keep the income tax system in place.

The FAIRtax would not only be simpler, fairer and much less expensive to administer and enforce, it would transfer real power from the government to the people and show everyone just how much the government is costing us.

The DC elites are desperate to keep the corrupt income/payroll tax system in place. To do this, they deliberately distort the truth about just how bad the system is for the American taxpayer. One particularly hideous thing they do is conceal just how much we pay in taxes. In this week's Chairman's Report, Steve Hayes calls them out on their dishonesty and shows how the FAIRtax is a much simpler and much more honest system.

State governors know that reducing or even eliminating a state's income tax is the best way to attract new people and new businesses to the state. Unfortunately, many try to make up the lost revenue by increasing the state sales tax. That shifts the tax burden down to those on the lower end of the income scale and has led low income voters to oppose candidates who want to lower state income tax rates. Fortunately, there's a way to sell lower income tax rates to this constituency--a state level FAIRtax.

This week's Chairman's Report is guest written by AFFT Board member Randy Fischer. In it, Randy examines both the FAIRtax and the income tax from a moral perspective.

Donald Trump says that if he's elected, he wants to help American businesses compete with foreign competitors by imposing tariffs on foreign produced goods. In all likelihood, that would start a trade war that would make consumer products more expensive all around the world. There's a better solution, the FAIRtax.

A jury has awarded two Georgia election workers a sizable judgement in their defamation lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani. One would think that financially, the ladies would be sitting pretty while Mr. Giuliani would be hurting. Surprisingly, that's not necessarily that case thanks to the many twists and turns in the Internal Revenue Code. AFFT president Steve Hayes explains in this week's Chairman's Report.

In this week's Chairman's Report, Steve Hayes explains the similarities and differences between the FAIRtax and the Value Added Tax.

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 uncomplicate the budget process to the point that anyone with a calculator can understand it.

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 returns stays confidential? The sad truth is that as long as the government has your data, it's not safe. If you want to ensure that your data isn't leaked, you should support the only tax reform plan that keeps your data out of the government's hands. You should support the FAIRtax.

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.