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We already tried a flat tax in the 80's. It was a good try but since then over 10,000 pages were added to the income tax code.
I prefer the real FairTax, a value added tax that does away with the income tax, payroll tax and IRS. In this plan, there is no tax up to the poverty line so poor people would not have any tax burden at all. The more you spend, the more you pay. Enact this kind of a tax system and you will see plenty of companies starting and moving to the US.
The first rule of tax policy is that you can only tax the money. Whoever has the money will pay the taxes. Then there are equity considerations to take into account. Taking $1,000 from a guy who makes $25,000 is different from taking $1,000 from a guy who makes $2,500,000. Taking 10% from a guy making $25,000 is different from taking 10% from a guy who makes $2,500,000. Taking $0 from a guy who makes $25,000 and $2,475,000 from a guy who makes $2,500,000 would leave them both with $25,000. That might be fair, but not many actually think so. So maybe you take $500 from the first guy, leaving him with $24,500. Maybe you take $900,000 from the second guy, leaving him with $1,600,000. Hmmm...
Your flat tax assumption contains no standard deduction or personal exemption, and every model I have seen proposed contains these features. The tax rate doesn't kick in until the personal exemptions and standard deduction factors, so in effect those with lower income either pay no or less tax than those who are wealthier.
An example would be the Forbes flat tax plan offered a decade ago, where a family of four wouldn't start paying the flat tax rate of 17% until after the first $36,000 was earned. I know Forbes had exemptions for stuff like Cap Gains, I'm not proposing that plan here. All I'm stating is that a plan can be put into place that provides a flat tax rate with reasonable personal exemptions and/or a standard deduction.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by coastalrap
We already tried a flat tax in the 80's. It was a good try but since then over 10,000 pages were added to the income tax code.
I prefer the real FairTax, a value added tax that does away with the income tax, payroll tax and IRS. In this plan, there is no tax up to the poverty line so poor people would not have any tax burden at all. The more you spend, the more you pay. Enact this kind of a tax system and you will see plenty of companies starting and moving to the US.
A flat tax is an excellent idea, and would stop the whining about who should pay more taxes. In reality, a flat tax is the fairest tax I can think of. For example, lets imagine that a rich person earns (I will use very small numbers to simplify) $1,000, and an average person earns $10.00 With a flat tax of 10%, the rich guy would pay $100.00 in federal tax, and the poor guy would pay $1.00.
No need for all the stupid tax forms, and the IRS would be a very small agency since the employer would automatically set the tax amount for the worker upon employment. The IRS would only have to monitor self employment, and companies, not the individual worker.
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