Americans for Fair Taxation
<div class="actprop"><h2 class="relation" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); line-height: 16px; padding-top: 10px; margin: 15px 0px 5px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-style: solid; width: 400px; padding-bottom: 3px; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px;">People related to Americans for Fair Taxation:</h2><div class="relLink" style="line-height: 17px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://www.muckety.com/Robert-C-McNair/81957.muckety" class="rel" relid="81957" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); outline: none; margin: 3px 0px 0px;">Robert C. McNair</a> - co-founder</div><h2 class="relation" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); line-height: 16px; padding-top: 10px; margin: 15px 0px 5px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-style: solid; width: 400px; padding-bottom: 3px; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px;">Other current Americans for Fair Taxation relationships:</h2><div class="relLink" style="line-height: 17px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://www.muckety.com/CRC-Public-Relations/5030751.muckety" class="rel" relid="5030751" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); outline: none; margin: 3px 0px 0px;">CRC Public Relations</a> - client</div><h2 class="relation" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); line-height: 16px; padding-top: 10px; margin: 15px 0px 5px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-style: solid; width: 400px; padding-bottom: 3px; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px;">Americans for Fair Taxation past relationships:</h2><div class="relLink" style="line-height: 17px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://www.muckety.com/David-Keating/213354.muckety" class="rel" relid="213354" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); outline: none; margin: 3px 0px 0px;">David Keating</a> - executive director</div><div class="relLink" style="line-height: 17px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://www.muckety.com/Leo-E-Linbeck-Jr/189324.muckety" class="rel" relid="189324" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); outline: none; margin: 3px 0px 0px;">Leo E. Linbeck Jr.</a> (deceased) - co-founder & chairman</div><div class="relLink" style="line-height: 17px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://www.muckety.com/Jack-T-Trotter/150629.muckety" class="rel" relid="150629" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); outline: none; margin: 3px 0px 0px;">Jack T. Trotter</a> - co-founder & director</div></div><div class="actprop"><div class="prsourcesSpecial" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;"><div class="head" style="display: inline;"><div class="relation" style="font-weight: bold; padding-top: 10px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); margin: 10px 0px 5px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-style: solid; width: 400px; padding-bottom: 3px; font-size: 15px;">Additional Muckety map information sources:</div></div></div><div class="tp_sourcesSpecial" style="display: inline; padding: 0px; margin: 0px -4px 0px 0px; line-height: 18px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;">U.S. Senate Office of Public Records</div><span style="line-height: 18px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;" /></div><div class="actprop"><div class="tp_sourcesSpecial" style="display: inline; padding: 0px; margin: 0px -4px 0px 0px; line-height: 18px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;"></div></div><div class="actprop"><div class="tp_sourcesSpecial" style="display: inline; padding: 0px; margin: 0px -4px 0px 0px; line-height: 18px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;">
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</div></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Americans For Fair Taxation (AFFT), also known as FairTax.org, is a US political advocacy group dedicated to fundamental tax code replacement. It is made up of volunteers who are working to get the Fair Tax Act (H.R. 25/S. 122) enacted in the United States – a plan to replace all federal payroll and income taxes (both corporate and personal) with a national retail sales tax and monthly tax "prebate" to households of citizens and legal resident aliens.</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">According to the Clearwater, Florida[1]-based organization, it is the largest, single-issue grassroots taxpayers union in the United States,[2] and claims to have signed up over 800,000 supporters.[3] The organization states that it subscribes to the ideals of simplicity, fairness, and freedom which they believe are embodied in the FairTax.[4][5]</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Contents [hide] </span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">1 History</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">2 Criticisms</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">3 See also</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">4 Notes</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">5 External links</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">History[edit]</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Orlando, Florida FairTax Rally sponsored by Americans For Fair Taxation on July 28, 2006 pix</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">An Americans For Fair Taxation slogan</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">AFFT was founded in 1994 by three Houston businessmen, Jack Trotter, Bob McNair, and Leo Linbeck, Jr., who each pledged $1.5 million as seed money to hire tax experts to identify what they perceived as faults with the current tax system, to determine what American citizens would like to see in tax reform, and then to design the best system of taxation.[4] The three went on to raise an additional $17 million to fund focus groups with citizens around the country and tax policy studies.[4]</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Some of the experts funded include:</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Professors David Burton and Dan Mastromarco, University of Maryland and The Argus Group</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Laurence Kotlikoff, Boston University</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Stephen Moore, The Cato Institute</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Professor Dale Jorgenson, Harvard University</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Bill Beach (economist), the Heritage Foundation</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Jim Poterba, The National Bureau of Economic Research</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Professor George Zodrow, Rice University and the Baker Institute for Public Policy</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Professor Joseph Kahn, Massachusetts Institute of Technology</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Criticisms</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Some have criticized Americans For Fair Taxation for the way that they present the FairTax plan. The most common critique is the presented FairTax rate of a 23% sales tax on the total transaction value of new retail goods and services purchases; consumers pay to the government 23 cents of every dollar spent (sometimes called tax inclusive).[6] However, American sales taxes have historically been expressed as a percentage of the original sale price (sometimes called tax exclusive) or a 30% FairTax rate; items priced at $100 pre-tax cost $130 with the tax added.[7] The use of the tax inclusive number in presenting the rate has been criticized as deceptive and by some as a "lie".[7] However, AFFT argues that the 23% number represents a better comparison to income tax rates.[6] If you are in a 25% income tax bracket, you will pay $25 in federal income taxes out of every $100 you earn. With the 23% FairTax, you would pay $23 in taxes out of every $100 you spend. This is also how the legislation is written—as an inclusive tax.[8]</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Bruce Bartlett has charged that the FairTax was originally devised by the Church of Scientology in the early 1990s as a way to get rid of the Internal Revenue Service.[9] Representative John Linder told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Bartlett confused the FairTax movement with the Scientology-affiliated Citizens for an Alternative Tax System.[10] Leo Linbeck, AFFT Chairman and CEO, stated "As a founder of Americans For Fair Taxation, I can state categorically, however, that Scientology played no role in the founding, research or crafting of the legislation giving expression to the FairTax."[11]</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">See also</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Part of the U.S. Taxation series</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">FairTax</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">FairTax subarticles</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Distribution of the burden</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Predicted effects</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Revenue neutrality</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">The FairTax Book</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Americans For Fair Taxation</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">v t e</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">FairTax</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Americans for Tax Reform</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Citizens for an Alternative Tax System</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Citizens for Tax Justice</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">National Taxpayers Union</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Tax Foundation</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">James M. Bennett</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Americans Standing for the Simplification of the Estate Tax</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
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</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Notes</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">^ Jump up to: a b c FairTax; Executive Leadership</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Jump up ^ Linbeck, Jr., Leo (2005-04-29). "Submission of Americans For Fair Taxation on the FairTax Comprehensive Tax Reform Proposal". The President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform. Archived from the original on 10 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-24.</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Jump up ^ Hemingway, Mark (2009-09-24). "Comes the FairTax". National Review Online. Retrieved 2007-09-27.</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">^ Jump up to: a b c Ose, Al (2002). America's Best Kept Secret Fairtax: Give Yourself a 25% Raise (Paperback ed.). Authorhouse. ISBN 1-4033-9189-0.</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Jump up ^ Regnier, Pat (2005-09-07). "Just how fair is the FairTax?". Money Magazine. Archived from the original on 20 June 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-20.</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">^ Jump up to: a b Boortz, Neal; Linder, John (2006). The Fair Tax Book (Paperback ed.). Regan Books. ISBN 0-06-087549-6.</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">^ Jump up to: a b Vance, Laurence (2005-12-12). "There is No Such Thing as a Fair Tax". Ludwig von Mises Institute. Archived from the original on 19 July 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-20.</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Jump up ^ Linder, John (2007-01-04). "H.R. 25: Fair Tax Act of 2007". govtrack.us. Retrieved 2006-01-16.</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Jump up ^ Bartlett, Bruce (2007-08-26). "Fair Tax, Flawed Tax". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 30 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-30.</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Jump up ^ Galloway, Jim (2007-08-28). "On John Linder and Scientology". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-30.</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Jump up ^ Linbeck, Leo (2007-08-29). "Be Fair to FairTax -- Throw the Red Herrings Back in the Water". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 14 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-02.</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">External links[edit]</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Official site</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Organizational Profile – National Center for Charitable Statistics (Urban Institute)</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><font face="arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Categories: Economic advocacy groups in the United StatesNonpartisan organizations in the United StatesNon-profit organizations based in TexasTax reform in the United StatesTaxpayer groupsScientology-related controversie</span></font></div><div class="actprop"><div class="tp_sourcesSpecial" style="display: inline; padding: 0px; margin: 0px -4px 0px 0px; line-height: 18px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;">
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