Bill Text: FL S0118 | 2014 | Regular Session | Enrolled

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Bill Title: National Retail Sales Tax

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2014-05-09 - Signed by Officers and filed with Secretary of State [S0118 Detail]

Download: Florida-2014-S0118-Enrolled.html

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       ENROLLED
       2014 Legislature                                          SM 118
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                                              2014118er
    1  
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging Congress to repeal all taxes on income and
    4         enact a national retail sales tax as specified in H.R.
    5         25, the Fair Tax Act of 2013.
    6  
    7         WHEREAS, our Founding Fathers, being mindful that history
    8  has demonstrated that income taxes give government too much
    9  power over citizens, specifically forbade such taxes in the
   10  Constitution of the United States, and
   11         WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist No. 21
   12  that “it is a signal advantage of taxes on articles of
   13  consumption, that they contain in their own nature a security
   14  against excess,” and
   15         WHEREAS, the current income tax system requires individual
   16  taxpayers to prepare annual tax returns using many complicated
   17  forms, causing innocent errors that are heavily punished, and
   18         WHEREAS, the current income tax system actually penalizes
   19  marriage, and
   20         WHEREAS, the federal income tax:
   21         (1) Retards economic growth and has reduced the standard of
   22  living of the American public;
   23         (2) Impedes the international competiveness of United
   24  States industry;
   25         (3) Reduces savings and investment in the United States by
   26  taxing income multiple times;
   27         (4) Slows the capital formation necessary for real wages to
   28  steadily increase;
   29         (5) Lowers productivity;
   30         (6) Imposes unacceptable and unnecessary administrative and
   31  compliance costs on individual and business taxpayers;
   32         (7) Is unfair and inequitable;
   33         (8) Unnecessarily intrudes upon the privacy and civil
   34  rights of United States citizens;
   35         (9) Hides the true costs of government by embedding taxes
   36  in the costs of everything that Americans buy;
   37         (10) Is not being complied with at satisfactory levels and,
   38  therefore, raises the tax burden on law-abiding citizens; and
   39         (11) Impedes upward social mobility, and
   40         WHEREAS, federal payroll taxes, including social security
   41  and Medicare payroll taxes and self-employment taxes:
   42         (1) Raise the cost of employment;
   43         (2) Destroy jobs and cause unemployment; and
   44         (3) Have a disproportionately adverse impact on lower
   45  income Americans, and
   46         WHEREAS, the federal estate and gift taxes:
   47         (1) Force family businesses and farms to be sold by the
   48  family in order to pay taxes;
   49         (2) Discourage capital formation and entrepreneurship;
   50         (3) Foster the continued dominance of large enterprises
   51  over small family-owned companies and farms; and
   52         (4) Impose unacceptably high tax-planning costs on small
   53  businesses and farms, and
   54         WHEREAS, a broad-based national sales tax on goods and
   55  services purchased for final consumption:
   56         (1) Is similar in many respects to the sales and use taxes
   57  that are authorized in 45 of the 50 states;
   58         (2) Will promote savings and investment;
   59         (3) Will promote fairness;
   60         (4) Will promote economic growth;
   61         (5) Will raise the standard of living;
   62         (6) Will enhance productivity and international
   63  competiveness;
   64         (7) Will reduce administrative burdens on the American
   65  taxpayer;
   66         (8) Will improve upward social mobility; and
   67         (9) Will respect the privacy interests and civil rights of
   68  taxpayers, and
   69         WHEREAS, Congress should consider when implementing the
   70  administration of a national sales tax that:
   71         (1) Most of the practical experience in administering sales
   72  taxes is found at the state level;
   73         (2) It is desirable to harmonize federal and state
   74  collection and enforcement efforts to the maximum extent
   75  possible;
   76         (3) It is sound tax administration policy to foster
   77  administration and collection of the federal sales tax at the
   78  state level in return for a reasonable administration fee to the
   79  states; and
   80         (4) A business that must collect and remit taxes should
   81  receive reasonable compensation for the cost of doing so, and
   82         WHEREAS, the 16th Amendment to the United States
   83  Constitution should be repealed, NOW, THEREFORE,
   84  
   85  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   86  
   87         That the Legislature of the State of Florida, with all due
   88  respect, does hereby urge the United States Congress to enact
   89  H.R. 25, the Fair Tax Act of 2013, which eliminates the personal
   90  income tax, the alternative minimum tax, the inheritance tax,
   91  the gift tax, the capital gains tax, the corporate income tax,
   92  the self-employment tax, and the employee and employer payroll
   93  tax and replaces them with a national retail sales tax.
   94         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
   95  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   96  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
   97  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
   98  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.