Should the United States Adopt a Flat Tax?

April 12, 2010 RSS Feed Print

It’s tax time again, leaving many Americans asking why the process has to be so hard and some calling tax laws unfair to the poor and middle class. Flat tax proponents say it is both easy and fair. Opponents label it “class warfare.” Is it time to change the system?
Edited by Steve St. Angelo

Yes

Daniel Mitchell
Senior fellow at the Cato Institute and an expert on tax reform and supply-side tax policy

Every April, Americans endure the misery of the Internal Revenue Service code. It is hopelessly complicated and nerve-wracking since the IRS has such immense powers to destroy people’s lives. It is time to implement a simple and fair flat tax.Instead of the hundreds of forms required by the IRS, the flat tax uses two simple postcards. Families use the household postcard, and all they need to know is their labor income, available on a W-2 form...

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No

Holley Ulbrich
Economics professor emeritus and senior fellow at the Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson University

Albert Einstein said that “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.” Good advice for people who want to redesign tax systems. It’s true that there are now 24 countries with a flat tax, but none of them got there by scrapping an established progressive income tax system nearly 100 years old. Fifteen of these countries are formerly Communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe. The others...

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Should the United States Adopt a Flat Income Tax?

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Do a majority of economists support the current income tax?- as opposed to the flat tax.

Sam of NY 9:27AM October 12, 2011

A flat tax (Cain's 999 to be specific) would essentially be a 4-8% tax increase on the middle class, a %300-%1500 increase on the poor, and a 50%+ deduction on the taxes of the rich (and that is with generating only about half of the tax revenue we do today ... and you think the defect is bad now?). Its a very steep sales tax that doesn't touch capital / investment gains. I don't think that is ever going to happen. We wouldn't only be quite jealous of Rwanda's income equality within the first decade, but I don't think a majority would vote to increase the tax burden on 90%+ of Americans. And then of course you have things like the mortgage deduction that would infuriate a lot of people and lobbies. Obama couldn't even slash the deduction on corporate jets for pete sake!

This would be terrible for just about everyone that isn't a successful investment banker.

JohnP of IN 5:15PM October 10, 2011

I have yet to hear a good argument. Except for loss of political power. Obviously not a good reason. Why won't any peruvians make a serious run at office with flat tax rates being a major theme to their campaign? I have to be missing something. Did the us ever have a flat tax rate?

Mike of NY 3:12PM July 27, 2011

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