Editor’s Note: A guest post by Col. Rob Maness, a Republican running for United States Senate in Louisiana. 

With tax day officially upon us, it is a perfect time to point out that one of the biggest problems in our federal government and with our economy is the convoluted and corrupt income tax code.

The income tax code punishes productivity and drives many of our businesses to other, more business friendly, countries. It also keeps smaller businesses from even being able to open or survive. The income tax code is the largest, single source of cronyism and corruption between politicians and lobbyists. It allows them to pit citizen against citizen and maintain their control over the lives of all of us.

Every candidate for office will trot out their own talking points about “simplifying the tax code” or “making it fairer and flatter” but will still maintain the same corrupt system that relies on the heavy hand of the IRS. Now is not the time for tinkering around the edges, now is the time for a complete restructuring of our federal tax code.

This is why I don’t believe that we can “fix” the tax code, we must totally blow it up and replace it! There is a bill in Congress that would do just that. H.R. 25 & S.155, The Fair Tax Act, would remove all federal income based and replace them with a simple, visible, single rate sales tax of 23% on all new goods and services, levied one time at the retail level. No more tax filing for individuals or worrying about the IRS and their auditing teams.

The FairTax would grow our economy and allow Louisiana businesses to create jobs. It would bring trillions of foreign investment dollars back to our country and state, without punishing investors. It will encourage savings and investment. It would eliminate the hidden costs of the income tax in our goods and services, putting us on a better footing in the world market.

The FairTAX not only abolishes the income tax and repeals the 16^th Amendment, it also abolishes the death tax, the corporate income tax, capital gains taxes, the alternative minimum tax, payroll taxes and all other forms of double taxation that currently infects the federal tax code.

The FairTax would increase efficiency in our federal government by increasing compliance & simplifying collection. The current tax system loses an estimated $600 billion per year in tax evasion and fraud. The FairTax is the only plan that will completely eliminate the IRS by returning most tax collection authority to the states where it belongs. This will save billions in tax payer dollars.

The FairTax will simplify the lives of every Louisianan. No more filing of individual tax returns and all of the burden that goes along with it, saving us over $400 billion per year in compliance and filing costs.

The FairTax would end the Federal Government’s ability to use the tax code as a means to unfairly target and oppress their political opponents.

The FairTax will eliminate federal withholding from your paycheck, leaving more money in your pocket. You are only taxed when you decide to consume a new product or service.

The FairTax is the only system that will treat all citizens equally, while not putting an undue burden on those working hard just to get by. The FairTax will provide a pre-bate, which will be equivalent to getting your tax refund now, although it would be at the beginning of every month to cover the taxes on the basic necessities of life.

That is why in my campaign for U.S Senate in Louisiana, I pledge to sign on to the FairTax Act, and fight for it’s passage.

Our current tax system is an absolute abomination and while plans like the Flat Tax are certainly preferable to what we have now, it keeps the head of the federal leviathan completely in tact. Put simply, I don’t believe that we can “reform” or “fix” a corrupt system like the income tax code that uses an immoral Internal Revenue Service to carry out its dirty work.

Only the FairTax abolishes the IRS, repeals the 16th Amendment and finally cuts the head off of the federal leviathan.

This piece originally appeared at The Shreveport Times.