Increasing the Tax Base - Group 4

(This is my most recent post to Americans for Fair Taxation)

Here’s a group you probably never thought about. While this group isn’t required to pay taxes, they spend a huge amount of money.

Teenagers comprise an up and coming group of future taxpayers. Many, if not most, teenagers don’t have jobs. When they do have what I call "traditional jobs", they will be paid at entry level wages - minimum wage. They usually don’t make enough to report their income, but still have taxes taken out. The group I’m focusing on in this essay are the teens who are unemployed or have jobs babysitting, lawn mowing, and the like. They don't have taxes automatically withdrawn so they don't "pay" taxes on their income.

The reason I include teenagers is that they do have money, whether from allowances, birthday or Christmas gifts, babysitting and lawn mowing, or just getting money from Mom or Dad. Under the Fair Tax they will become tax payers when they buy clothing, CD’s, DVD’s, or whatever it is teenagers buy today.

I know, there will be those who lambast me because I advocate adding teenagers to the tax base, but what is really wrong with it? They pay a state tax on those items now. The addition of a Federal consumption tax is not going to stop them from buying what they want. If anything, they will become more savvy shoppers and make their money go farther. Many teenagers want to be "adults", so, let them pay taxes like adults do.

We started out with the wage-earner group and added the criminal element, tourists, illegal immigrants, and now teenagers. Next, a summary of the tax base.