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Saw this in an article today: "...right-wing business panaceas ... that Americans have balked at, such as a flat tax on personal and corporate income..."
What makes a flat tax right-wing (or left-wing, for that matter)? Assuming said flat tax has a floor of whatever is considered a livable wage (which is below taxating level in the current, wacked-out system), what's wrong with such a tax?
I could see fiscal libertarians not liking it because it taxes high-income people more -- though the rate is the same -- and fiscal liberals (odd how "liber" is in both...) not liking it because it might prevent middle-income people from getting a lot of the tax breaks they get today -- but surely high-income people find more tax breaks! I can also see the IRS not liking it, because it would put them out of a job! But I doubt many people would cry for them.
So why not do it? I think Steve Forbes was the most recent person to push such an idea, so is it anti-Forbes-ism? Imagine the savings in tax costs (the IRS isn't free, my friends) and pain: You just pay your taxes via your employer and never need to worry about being short at the end of the year.
Where's the devil's advocate here?
Chris
What makes a flat tax right-wing (or left-wing, for that matter)? Assuming said flat tax has a floor of whatever is considered a livable wage (which is below taxating level in the current, wacked-out system), what's wrong with such a tax?
I could see fiscal libertarians not liking it because it taxes high-income people more -- though the rate is the same -- and fiscal liberals (odd how "liber" is in both...) not liking it because it might prevent middle-income people from getting a lot of the tax breaks they get today -- but surely high-income people find more tax breaks! I can also see the IRS not liking it, because it would put them out of a job! But I doubt many people would cry for them.
So why not do it? I think Steve Forbes was the most recent person to push such an idea, so is it anti-Forbes-ism? Imagine the savings in tax costs (the IRS isn't free, my friends) and pain: You just pay your taxes via your employer and never need to worry about being short at the end of the year.
Where's the devil's advocate here?
Chris