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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, A value-added tax (VAT) is a type of sales tax
3that is assessed on goods at every stage of production; and
 
4    WHEREAS, A VAT is a hidden tax that is ultimately passed
5along to consumers, but is embedded into the price of goods and
6services and therefore not transparent to the consumer; and
 
7    WHEREAS, The average tax burden levied by the federal
8government since 1980 has been 18.2% of gross domestic product
9(GDP); and
 
10    WHEREAS, Within the next 15 years, federal taxes are
11projected to rise to the highest level in United States
12history; and
 
13    WHEREAS, Adding a VAT on top of the existing federal income
14tax would increase the burden on United States taxpayers to
15unprecedented levels; and
 
16    WHEREAS, The average VAT rate in Europe has risen from 5%
17when the tax was first introduced in the 1960s to 20% today;
18and
 
19    WHEREAS, European countries that have imposed a VAT have

 

 

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1seen their total tax burden rise to an average of over 40% of
2GDP; and
 
3    WHEREAS, Such high levels of taxation and spending crowd
4out private investment, which stifles economic growth and leads
5to chronically high levels of unemployment; and
 
6    WHEREAS, The Internal Revenue Service Office of the
7Taxpayer Advocate has calculated that United States taxpayers
8spend approximately $200 billion and 7.6 billion hours a year
9to comply with federal tax laws; and
 
10    WHEREAS, A VAT would only add another layer of complexity
11and compliance costs to a fundamentally unsound tax system; and
 
12    WHEREAS, The burden of a VAT would fall most heavily on
13low-income and middle-class Americans; and
 
14    WHEREAS, The true solution to the United States fiscal
15crisis is to rein in the unsustainable growth of federal
16spending; and
 
17    WHEREAS, A VAT would do nothing to restore fiscal
18accountability in Washington, but would simply bankroll
19wasteful and inefficient federal government spending;
20therefore, be it
 

 

 

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1    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
2NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
3we urge Congress to oppose the passage of any value-added tax;
4and be it further
 
5    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
6presented to the members of the Illinois congressional
7delegation.