Title: National Retail Sales Tax

Summary: Urging Congress to repeal all taxes on income and enact a national retail sales tax as specified in H.R. 25, the Fair Tax Act of 2013, etc.

Full Text:
WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist No. that  it is a signal advantage of taxes on articles of consumption, that they contain in their own nature a security against excess,  and WHEREAS, the current income tax system requires individual taxpayers to prepare annual tax returns using many complicated forms, causing innocent errors that are heavily punished, and WHEREAS, the current income tax system actually penalizes marriage, and WHEREAS, the federal income tax: (1) Retards economic growth and has reduced the standard of living of the American public; (2) Impedes the international competiveness of United States industry; (3) Reduces savings and investment in the United States by taxing income multiple times; (4) Slows the capital formation necessary for real wages to steadily increase; (5) Lowers productivity; (6) Imposes unacceptable and unnecessary administrative and compliance costs on individual and business taxpayers; (7) Is unfair and inequitable; (8) Unnecessarily intrudes upon the privacy and civil rights of United States citizens; (9) Hides the true costs of government by embedding taxes in the costs of everything that Americans buy; (10) Is not being complied with at satisfactory levels and, therefore, raises the tax burden on law-abiding citizens; and (11) Impedes upward social mobility, and WHEREAS, federal payroll taxes, including social security and Medicare payroll taxes and self-employment taxes: (1) Raise the cost of employment; (2) Destroy jobs and cause unemployment; and (3) Have a disproportionately adverse impact on lower income Americans, and WHEREAS, the federal estate and gift taxes: (1) Force family businesses and farms to be sold by the family in order to pay taxes; (2) Discourage capital formation and entrepreneurship; (3) Foster the continued dominance of large enterprises over small family-owned companies and farms; and (4) Impose unacceptably high tax-planning costs on small businesses and farms, and WHEREAS, a broad-based national sales tax on goods and services purchased for final consumption: (1) Is similar in many respects to the sales and use taxes that are authorized in of the states; (2) Will promote savings and investment; (3) Will promote fairness; (4) Will promote economic growth; (5) Will raise the standard of living; (6) Will enhance productivity and international competiveness; (7) Will reduce administrative burdens on the American taxpayer; (8) Will improve upward social mobility; and (9) Will respect the privacy interests and civil rights of taxpayers, and WHEREAS, Congress should consider when implementing the administration of a national sales tax that: (1) Most of the practical experience in administering sales taxes is found at the state level; (2) It is desirable to harmonize federal and state collection and enforcement efforts to the maximum extent possible; (3) It is sound tax administration policy to foster administration and collection of the federal sales tax at the state level in return for a reasonable administration fee to the states; and (4) A business that must collect and remit taxes should receive reasonable compensation for the cost of doing so, and WHEREAS, the 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution should be repealed, NOW, THEREFORE, Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida: That the Legislature of the State of Florida, with all due respect, does hereby urge the United States Congress to enact H.R. 25, the Fair Tax Act of 2013, which eliminates the personal income tax, the alternative minimum tax, the inheritance tax, the gift tax, the capital gains tax, the corporate income tax, the self-employment tax, and the employee and employer payroll tax and replaces them with a national retail sales tax. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be dispatched to the President of the United States, to the President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and to each member of the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.