A return to the system of taxation before Amendment 16 in 1913 has many advantages. The Founding Fathers knew about income tax or any direct tax and consciously avoided it for the very faults we are now finding in them. They are too invasive of privacy and true freedom. The implementation of the income tax has so eroded our privacy and freedom that we are more vassals of the federal government than were the colonists who rebelled against King George III and his government. Excise tax and customs duties are essentially consumption taxes. They are easy to collect and evenly distribute the load of taxation on the consumer. All the other taxes are an impediment to thrift and savings.
Income taxes and sales taxes are collected at the remotest point in the line of product consumption. Excise taxes and customs duties are at the head of the line, therefore easier to collect and non-invasive. With flat tax, the government still wants you to do all the work of collecting the information to calculate the tax and to tell everything about yourself.We strongly support the scrapping of the IRS, income taxes and all other federal taxes and a return to the formula of the Constitution before the 16th Amendment. Excise tax and customs duties are by far the fairest way to spread the expense of government evenly, without invasion of the personal lives of the people and at far less cost than any of the proposed sales taxes, flat taxes, etc., etc. Our full support is in such a restoration of the intent of that basic document.
Francis E. and Deanne P. Lawlor
Provo