On Thursday, the Republican-controlled Tennessee House passed a resolution urging Congress to pass the Fair Tax Act of 2023, a federal bill that would drastically overhaul the tax code to favor the wealthy.
Wow! TN GOP just voted for encouraging Congress to raise Tennessean’s sales tax to over 30 cents per dollar. I thought they were against higher taxes.
Economically idiotic. #HJR0017— Rep. Gloria Johnson (@VoteGloriaJ) March 13, 2025
The body voted 69-22 to pass House Joint Resolution 17, which now heads to the state Senate.
The Fair Tax Act would replace income, payroll, estate and gift taxes with a national sales tax of roughly 30% on goods and services like housing, health care and groceries. Some experts predict the tax burden for lower and middle-class families would increase while wealthier families, who spend less of their total income on consumption, would benefit.
The bill would also eliminate the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which would be another potential benefit for the wealthy as the department is largely responsible for enforcing corporate income tax laws. The plan would also eliminate earned income and child tax credits, which help lift lower class families out of poverty.
The Center for American Progress, a liberal policy think tank, also points to a drastic reduction in federal revenue and the government’s ability to fund public services like Medicare and Social Security, which both rely on payroll taxes.
The bill was reintroduced by Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) in January.