Does the FairTax repeal the 16th Amendment?
Yes, the FairTax plan does foresee the repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment, but, no, procedurally the repeal cannot be included in the text of H.R 25. Let me explain. The Sixteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1913, gave the Congress explicit authority to enact income taxes, because the Supreme Court ruled, in its 1895 Pollack v. Farmer’s Loan Company decision, that such direct income taxes were unconstitutional. While some legal scholars argue that an income tax could have been legal even in the absence of the Sixteenth Amendment, I certainly believe that the repeal of the Amendment is an important symbolic and functional step in returning power over taxation to the people. The FairTax, H.R. 25, cannot include legislative text to repeal the Sixteenth Amendment. To become law, the FairTax simply needs a simple majority approval by both the House and Senate and the signature of the President. A repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment requires a House Joint Resolution (H.J. Res) and the appr
