Tennessee 2025-2026 Regular Session

Tennessee House Bill HJR0017 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1
2	2	<BillNo> <Sponsor>
3	3
4	4	HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 17
5	5	By McCalmon
6	6
7	7
8	8	HJR0017
9	9	000952
10	10	- 1 -
11	11
12	12	A RESOLUTION to urge the United States Congress to repeal all
13	13	taxes on income and enact a national retail sales
14	14	tax as specified in H.R. 25, the Fair Tax Act of
15	15	2023.
16	16
17	17	WHEREAS, our Founding Fathers were mindful that history has demonstrated that
18	18	income taxes give government too much power over citizens; and
19	19	WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist No. 21 that "it is a signal
20	20	advantage of taxes on articles of consumption, that they contain in their own nature a security
21	21	against excess"; and
22	22	WHEREAS, the current income tax system requires individual taxpayers to prepare
23	23	annual tax returns using many complicated forms, causing innocent errors that are heavily
24	24	punished; and
25	25	WHEREAS, the current income tax system actually penalizes marriage; and
26	26	WHEREAS, the federal income tax:
27	27	(1) Retards economic growth and has reduced the standard of living of the American
28	28	public;
29	29	(2) Impedes the international competitiveness of United States industry;
30	30	(3) Reduces savings and investment in the United States by taxing income multiple
31	31	times;
32	32	(4) Slows the capital formation necessary for real wages to steadily increase;
33	33	(5) Lowers productivity;
34	34	(6) Imposes unacceptable and unnecessary administrative and compliance costs on
35	35	individual and business taxpayers;
36	36	(7) Is unfair and inequitable;
37	37
38	38
39	39	- 2 - 000952
40	40
41	41	(8) Unnecessarily intrudes upon the privacy and civil rights of United States citizens;
42	42	(9) Hides the true costs of government by embedding taxes in the costs of everything
43	43	that Americans buy;
44	44	(10) Is not being complied with at satisfactory levels and, therefore, raises the tax burden
45	45	on law-abiding citizens; and
46	46	(11) Impedes upward social mobility; and
47	47	WHEREAS, federal payroll taxes, including social security and Medicare payroll taxes
48	48	and self-employment taxes:
49	49	(1) Raise the cost of employment;
50	50	(2) Destroy jobs and cause unemployment; and
51	51	(3) Have a disproportionately adverse impact on lower-income Americans; and
52	52	WHEREAS, the federal estate and gift taxes:
53	53	(1) Force family businesses and farms to be sold by the family in order to pay taxes;
54	54	(2) Discourage capital formation and entrepreneurship;
55	55	(3) Foster the continued dominance of large enterprises over small family-owned
56	56	companies and farms; and
57	57	(4) Impose unacceptably high tax-planning costs on small businesses and farms; and
58	58	WHEREAS, a broad-based national sales tax on goods and services purchased for final
59	59	consumption:
60	60	(1) Is similar in many respects to the sales and use taxes that are authorized in forty-five
61	61	of the fifty states;
62	62	(2) Will promote savings and investment;
63	63	(3) Will promote fairness;
64	64	(4) Will promote economic growth;
65	65	(5) Will raise the standard of living;
66	66
67	67
68	68	- 3 - 000952
69	69
70	70	(6) Will enhance productivity and international competitiveness;
71	71	(7) Will reduce administrative burdens on the American taxpayer;
72	72	(8) Will improve upward social mobility; and
73	73	(9) Will respect the privacy interests and civil rights of taxpayers; and
74	74	WHEREAS, Congress should consider when implementing the administration of a
75	75	national sales tax that:
76	76	(1) Most of the practical experience in administering sales taxes is found at the state
77	77	level;
78	78	(2) It is desirable to harmonize federal and state collection and enforcement efforts to the
79	79	maximum extent possible;
80	80	(3) It is sound tax administration policy to foster administration and collection of the
81	81	federal sales tax at the state level in return for a reasonable administration fee to the states; and
82	82	(4) A business that must collect and remit taxes should receive reasonable
83	83	compensation for the cost of doing so; and
84	84	WHEREAS, Tennessee successfully maintains government functions without a personal
85	85	income tax; and
86	86	WHEREAS, Tennessee's reliance on the retail sales tax (consumption tax) since 1947
87	87	and elimination of the state personal income tax has proven successful in attracting an ever-
88	88	increasing number of businesses moving operations and facilities to Tennessee, creating
89	89	substantial additional jobs; and
90	90	WHEREAS, Amendment 3, the Tennessee Income Tax Prohibition Act, which was
91	91	approved by voters in 2014, amended the State Constitution to prohibit the Tennessee
92	92	legislature from levying, authorizing, or permitting any state or local tax upon payroll or earned
93	93	personal income; and
94	94
95	95
96	96	- 4 - 000952
97	97
98	98	WHEREAS, Tennessee is a model that demonstrates the success of the consumption
99	99	tax versus the repressive and suppressive effects on individual production and savings as a
100	100	result of income taxes; and
101	101	WHEREAS, the 16
102	102	th
103	103	Amendment to the United States Constitution should be repealed;
104	104	now, therefore,
105	105	BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED
106	106	FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE SENATE
107	107	CONCURRING, that the members of this General Assembly do hereby urge the United States
108	108	Congress to enact H.R. 25, the Fair Tax Act of 2023, which eliminates the personal income tax,
109	109	the alternative minimum tax, the inheritance tax, the gift tax, the capital gains tax, the corporate
110	110	income tax, the self-employment tax, and the employee and employer payroll tax and replaces
111	111	them with a national retail sales tax.
112	112	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that an appropriate copy of this resolution be transmitted
113	113	to the President of the United States and each member of the Tennessee Congressional
114	114	Delegation.