To the editor:

Another tax year completed. Hooray!

Few among us love the income tax and the Internal Revenue Service. Yet many consider it unpatriotic to complain about our American tax system, even if they do quietly wish we could come up with something better.

America was founded on rebellion against a tax system far less onerous than what we now endure. Surely the fathers of this nation would be appalled at the oppressive, intrusive mess that has become the income tax.

The patriotic thing to do is remedy the problem rather than pretend it doesn’t exist. After years of grass-roots effort, there is broadly supported legislation before both houses of Congress that would eliminate the income tax and the IRS.

The legislation, HR 25/S1493, is called the FairTax. It replaces income tax with retail sales tax on new goods and services. Sales tax rate is revenue-neutral, generating enough tax revenue to completely replace all federal personal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, self-employment and corporate taxes.

FairTax eliminates all payroll tax withholding as well as the 7.65 percent employer matching of FICA taxes. Imposed only on new goods, no sales tax is collected on the transfer of used property.

The FairTax also is progressive, with monthly rebates paid to each household equal to the sales tax on that household’s poverty-level income (those at the poverty level pay zero effective sales tax).

Can you imagine taking home your whole paycheck?

Can you imagine never filing another income tax return?

Rich Lorenzo,

Lawrence