Flat tax... what is it?

Ok, just wanted to get a worm on the hook for this little hole...

IS the idea of a Flat Tax a purely socialistic idea or does it fit in the capitalist bible? Has any politician attempted to put a plan together? Why has/hasn't any attempt ever gotten off the ground?

I'm curious...

meta4 wrote:Ok, just wanted to get a worm on the hook for this little hole...

IS the idea of a Flat Tax a purely socialistic idea or does it fit in the capitalist bible?

I don't know, I'm only up to the part about the zombies...

Cincy Fan 44 wrote:

meta4 wrote:Ok, just wanted to get a worm on the hook for this little hole...

IS the idea of a Flat Tax a purely socialistic idea or does it fit in the capitalist bible?

I don't know, I'm only up to the part about the zombies...

Do you know what Jugo was referring to? It's prego...

I think we discussed this before (old board). I would be for it. Several web sites out there with information on it. I believe former Gov. Mike Huckabee was a big promoter this election cycle. Either one IMO would be better than what we have now.

http://www.taxalmanac.org/index.php/Flat_Tax_vs_Fair_Tax

http://www.pafairtax.org/resrcs/FlatTaxFairTaxComparison.pdf

http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer

There's been a lot of people for a flat tax... well.. a modified flat tax anyway.

Most people change it in some way.. like fairtax.org, it's not a flat tax, it's progressive.

By rule a flat tax would be X% of whatever you define as income, period. That'll never fly because libs wouldn't let the poor get taxed at the same rate as the rich, look at their debate now, it's 40% versus 0% and it's not enough.

The biggest problem with any sort of tax is how do you define income. With a flat tax are you going to tax wages and business income the same? What about cash basis versus accrual basis? Most businesses are accrual basis, all individuals are cash basis. So if you have a flat rate and I own a business that flows onto my personal return I can play games with the taxes I owe, those who don't own businesses can't do this. So in essence, you are favoring the business owners here.

What about families? Are you going to tax a family of 5 the same as an individual? If not, you don't have a flat tax.

Basically it's a can of worms, there's no easy way to answer it. The current system is flawed, but any change will bring about new issues, and most people don't want to address them because anyone can turn change into "they want to hurt you and help them".