There have been many debates over the decades about what will be taxed, who will be taxed, and how taxes will be collected. Since the 16th Amendment was ratified in 1913, the debate has intensified, focusing on how high the income tax rate should be. Most Americans were not concerned since the amendment had been sold to them as something that would only affect corporations and the wealthy. With ever-increasing fervor, these companies created lobbyists to convince Congress to exempt them from some or all income taxes. The great turning point in this regard was the direct taxation of the worker with payroll taxes during the Second World War. This method of collecting income taxes was sold to Americans as temporary, but Congress extended it indefinitely and the public became accustomed to it. The following decades saw the debate revolve around creating tax breaks for individuals in an attempt to change behavior or spending. This has resulted in over 67,000 pages of tax code and an entire industry dedicated to tax compliance and evasion, with corporations inadvertently changing behavior and the wealthy parking their money outside the United States in small island nations to avoid taxation. These offshore accounts are estimated to contain $10 trillion, close to the national debt. The FairTax Act should be enacted because it eliminates all federal income taxes for individuals and corporations, eliminates all federal payroll tax withholdings, abolishes estate and capital gains taxes, and repeals the 16th Amendment; thus eliminating the need for offshore accounts. The FairTax Act would replace these expensive, oppressively complex, and economically inefficient taxes with a progressive national retail sales tax, which would be levied on the final sale... middle of paper... ..., while at the same time doing the their best to intensify the economic class war. The FairTax Act addresses nothing more than tax collection and emphasizes that the worker is already paying the brunt of the taxes, the FairTax simply lets the worker know exactly how they are taxed and how much. More importantly, the worker can choose how much taxes to pay, giving him more power over the government, a balance of power that has been in the government's favor since the 16th Amendment was adopted. The same supporters of this plan want the government to maintain this overwhelming power over citizens; it allows the politician to dole out favors and punishments in the form of tax cuts and increases. These same advocates preach equality while dividing classes; It is this division of voting blocs that politicians can play on that will be eliminated with the FairTax Act.