THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Monday, November 20, 1995              TAG: 9511160024
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   44 lines

REPLACE INCOME TAX WITH SALES TAX

I just read James K. Glassman's ``Would a flat tax be the answer?'' (Sunday Business, Nov. 5). Mr. Glassman doesn't understand the basic drive behind the cry for tax reform. People don't want to flatten or modify the existing internal-revenue code: They want the IRS out of their lives. It's time to overhaul the entire system with a National Retail Sales Tax.

Granted a flattened income tax would be better than our present system, but under Dick Armey's legislation, taxes would be paid monthly like a bill, with the burden of paperwork resting on the shoulders of your employer, bank, investment company and the IRS. Filing taxes April 15 would give way to a monthly postcard-size return with a year-end reconciliation.

The IRS can barely handle its current mail, let alone this new proposal that some estimate would push the current 2 billion documents a year upward to 8, maybe 9, billion documents.

Many of the advantages of the National Retail Sales Tax are not realized with a flat income tax. The underground economy continues untaxed, and U.S. companies still export the cost of our government overseas. Citizens for an Alternative Tax System has been studying the impact that a National Retail Sales Tax would have. Many economists agree the United States would be more attractive for investment, since the United States would be the only major industrial nation not taxing venture capital, individual investment or corporations.

The National Retail Sales Tax is fair, simple to administer and simple to understand, and it allows those who produce to be rewarded for their production. Furthermore, it fundamentally increases the work incentive. Sure the flat tax is better than our present system, but the National Retail Sales Tax totally removes the IRS from our lives.

DAVID BEEMER, director

Tidewater Chapter

Citizens for an Alternative Tax System

Virginia Beach, Nov. 5, 1995 by CNB