Flat taxes are an easy answer to the question: "How do we make the tax system more fair?", after all, what could be more fair than everyone pays 10% (or whatever the rate may be). But like Rebel pointed out, it still misses all those people who don't pay taxes NOW, which is rapidly approaching 50% of the populace. The Fairtax at first doesn't seem "fair", because you're all of a sudden taxing things people need to survive (food, housing, etc) and how are the "poor" supposed to pay taxes on top of those prices when they're already barely scraping by? That's where the Fairtax is most brilliant. 1) Eliminating corporate taxes gives suppliers of goods, and ultimately retailers, the ability to drop prices by about 20%. If you think retailers won't drop prices, just ask yourself what would happen to Wal-Mart (as an example) if they didn't drop prices and Target did. 2) The "prebate" is an upfront monthly stipend to cover the cost of taxes for those "necessities of life", so your tax liability for basic living is 0. The prebate only goes to those who are here legally, so no more free ride for illegal aliens, oh, and the illegals pay taxes too.
Long story short, benefits of the Fairtax:
Everyone pays taxes
You get your entire paycheck (no withholding)
No added tax burden on business for hiring
Individuals have more control over what they pay the gov
Disincentivizes illegal immigration
Disincentivizes illegal income (drug dealers pay taxes too now)
Did I miss anything Reb?