Have you heard of HR 4646 Debt Free America Act?
H.R. 4646 is bill introduced to the US House of Representatives by Rep. Chaka Fattah [D-PA2] on February23, 2010. It is called the Debt Free America Act.
A more insidious piece of legislation could not exist.
According to www.govtrack.us, Debt Free America Act – States as purposes of this Act the raising of sufficient revenue from a fee on transactions to eliminate the national debt within seven years and the phasing out of the individual income tax. Amends the Internal Revenue Code to impose a 1% fee, offset by a corresponding nonrefundable income tax credit, on transactions that use a payment instrument, including any check, cash, credit card, transfer of stock, bonds, or other financial instrument. Defines “transaction” to include retail and wholesale sales, purchases of intermediate goods, and financial and intangible transactions.
In plain speak, the US government wants to tax us on every monetary transaction we make including buying and selling items and withdrawing and depositing our money.Let’s say you have a boat and you sell it privately to an individual for $25,000. You will have to pay a 1% tax on the sales amount. When you deposit the check, you again will have to pay a 1% tax on the deposit.
If you want to use the money from the boat sale to buy a car, again you will pay a 1% tax on the purchase of the $25,000 car and a 1% tax on the withdrawal by check that you use to make the purchase.
All said, you’ve paid 4% in taxes for selling, depositing, buying and writing a check to the tune of $1000.
This bill claims that the purpose is to raise revenue from fees on transactions in order to eliminate the national debt. In addition, this is supposed to allow our government to phase out personal income tax.
Here is my fear.
That this insidious tax will be placed on us with the promise of phasing out personal income tax. Then after a few years, when we’ve become used to the tax and it is part of our daily life, our government will decide we can carry the load and not phase out personal income tax. Plus, the fee will cause people to make more cash only transactions which means the government will not be receiving as much income from these fees as planned. And voila, another permanent tax is born.
Not only do I not trust the government to handle this as advertised, but to avoid paying these 1% fees, more and more people will begin using only cash transactions which means more cash in pockets, purses, homes you name it. The robbery and burglary rates will rise as people keep more cash on hand to avoid the 1% fee.
How about some income tax relief. I encourage you to read up on HR 4646 and let your Representatives know your views.