Retailers Welcome Panel's Rejection of National Sales Tax

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 11, 2005 — The National Retail Federation welcomed today’s decision by the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform to reject proposals to replace the federal income tax system with a controversial National Retail Sales Tax.

“This is a major victory for the American consumers and workers who would have suffered under a national sales tax,” NRF Vice President and Tax Counsel Rachelle Bernstein said. “Consumer spending has been the backbone of the U.S. economy in recent years, and the huge new tax that was proposed would have sent a message to consumers to stop spending. The implications of that would have had devastating results for every job behind every product on the shelf. Our nation’s tax system needs work, but a national sales tax isn’t the answer and we’re glad the Advisory Panel has agreed.”

“The Advisory Panel reached some of the same conclusions that we came to a long time ago,” Bernstein said. “A National Retail Sales Tax would be extremely regressive, it would require astronomically high tax rates and there would be tax evasion like we’ve never seen before. Some people call it the Fair Tax but we call it the Unfair Tax.”

“Now that a National Retail Sales Tax has been rejected, it’s important that the Advisory Panel realize that other consumption taxes are just as bad,” Bernstein said.

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