Consumer Tax Credit

One solution for getting Americans to buy more American products would be to give them a tax credit for each American product they purchased.  This tax credit could range anywhere from 1% to 100%.  It could also be given only for products which were completely made in America, or the amount of the Consumer Tax Credit could be based on the percentage of the product that was made in America.

One way such Consumer Tax Credit might work is as follows:

1. Every American who desired to participate in the program would be issued a red, white and blue Consumer Tax Credit card which could be used to track one’s purchases of goods made in America (regardless of whether they paid with cash or credit card).  One’s name would appear on the face of the card, and their Social Security Number would be embedded in the magnetic code.
2. Each time one purchased a product, for which they desired to receive a tax credit, one would swipe their Red White & Blue card when they made a purchase and they would receive a tax credit for the amount of said product that was made in America.  Note:  one could only do this if the participating product had certified what percent of their product was made in America.
3. When one filed their tax return, they could simply look up online the amount of dollars they had spent on products made in America, and then they would be entitled to a credit against their taxes for said amount.  The IRS would also have access to the amount of products that you purchased which were made in America, and so they would match that number with what you wrote on your tax return.

Whether or not one used the Consumer Tax Credit card would be up to each individual.  For example, if I was a very private person I might never use it except when I bought my new Ford Explorer.  In this case, if my new Ford Explorer cost $28,000.00, and one-half of the Ford Explorer was made in America, I would receive a tax credit equal to $14,000.00 multiplied by the tax credit percentage.  I could use this tax credit to offset taxes I would have otherwise owed to the IRS.  In the above example, if a 100% tax credit were in place, and one-half the Ford Explorer was made in America, I would save $14,000.00 by purchasing the Ford Explorer versus a foreign vehicle.  If 100% of the Ford Explorer was made in America and a 100% tax credit was in place, I would save $28,000.00.

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