Suggestion and question for flat tax proponents...?

Question

What would you think about a 15% federal tax, 5%state tax, 3%county tax, 2% city tax, straight up for any person or entity that creates an income. There would be no loopholes, no breaks, no bs. If 1 dollar is made, 25 cents paid. If a hundred thousand is made, 25 thousand is paid. No more and No less. No more tax sycophants. The elected officials pay all the bills from those funds.

Ken C... Everyone would have to "bite the bullet" so to speak but keep in mind that there would be a great deal of funding available for programs to benefit those who needed honest financial support. The ones who would bear the brunt would be Corporate America and our national debt would shrink quickly. There would be enough funding to repare the deficits for programs for the aged, education, healthcare, and give citizens a QUALITY of life not experienced at the present time under the present conditions.

Answer 1

Aside from the county/city issue (because that works radically different in different states), that's basically the flat tax model.

One fixed rate, no exceptions. The most common variant is a single threshold -- if you make above X, then you pay Y% of the total. If you make less than X you pay nothing.

Most estimates and projections I have seen show that model as generating nearly as much net revenue, with a drastic reduction in the overall tax paid, because so much overhead is eliminated.

Answer 2

As per what coragryph said in a successful model its flat but there is a low end point which you dont pay anything, currently your first 6k dollars earned is not taxed, it could be raised so that poorer people were actually better off.

The key to the whole thing is streamlining the system which eliminates alot of need for most IRS people and I would imagine alot of tax preparers would need to find something else to do for work.

Answer 3

What do you do about the people who have already planed their lives around certain deductions?
The Middle Class would suffer, losing their Home Mortgage Deduction, as most homes were purchased and priced with that in tact?
Retired folks who have their money in Tax Free Bonds with lower interest rates? This would effectively wipe out much of their value?
The deductions for putting money at risk to create jobs?
These are just a few of the MANY questions that need to be addressed in any talk of a Flat Tax, Fair Tax, or National Sales Tax.
What do we do to protect Middle America who have planned their lives around a Progressive Tax structure?

Answer 4

Proponents of a flat tax need to take some remedial math courses. See if you can figure out why this is relevant. I used to use it in class to show orders of magnitude.
It takes about eleven and one half days for a million seconds to go by. It takes over Thirty two YEARS for a billion seconds to go by. (get out your calculators)
A small percentage of people own a large percentage of the money in the USA.
Flat tax math would not work.

Answer 5

Personally, the Fair Tax is better in my opinion. It would rid us of the IRS and simplify the tax code, but I'd much much rather have a flat tax, than a progressive one. Currently my parents make about 100k a year, but you wouldn't guess it. A lot of that income is made on overtime, and we all know how much we see of our overtime pay. My father gets about half of his check taken away in taxes. HALF!!!! If that isn't robbery, I don't know what is!!

Answer 6

well... that's not that bad... put the problem is... you're dealing with federal... state... county... and city government here...

getting EVERYONE to agree to this would be like bringing peace to the world... a nice idea but I don't see it happening...

Answer 7

I would have to calculate it out according to gross pay? Wait a minute...
You are taking more money off of me by a couple of bucks than I am already paying! GGGRRRRRRRR