2014 KS Senate debate: on Tax Reform

Chad Taylor: Simplify tax code, but no FairTax and no national sales tax

A: Taxes should be "simplified and transparent," where the purpose of transparency is to show how taxpayers' money is actually spent. Tax forms should be 2 pages: your tax form on one side, and how your taxes are spent on the other side.

Q: Some specific policy changes?

A: We would eliminate loopholes for special interests. We would create a tax holiday for repatriation of overseas corporate funds, if those funds are used for R&D, physical plant, pensions, or job creation

Q: The term "simplification" usually implies lowering taxes--is that what you mean?

A: Yes, that is a fair characterization, but "simplification" means that the tax code should not be 70,000 pages. Taxes should be easier to do for taxpayers, and should not require a paid professional to do them.

Q: Does "simplification" include schemes for reducing the number of tax rates?

A: No, we do not support policies like the FairTax, nor a national sales tax, nor any other policies like those.

Randall Batson: Replace income tax with FairTax national sales tax

Repeal the 16th amendment. Replace with the FairTax; this national sales tax replaces most federal taxes. Currently, embedded taxes result in overpricing all items in the market. Once transitioned to the FairTax, prices would drop while at the same time boosting peoples' paychecks. Unlike the proposed inclusive rate of 23%, with payroll deduction choice mentioned earlier, the FairTax could be lowered to 9%.