Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
It's not regressive or progressive, it's flat as you point out.
We already have a regressive tax system as I've explained.
The point is that other programs exist as a safety net to lower income people. The wealthy end up paying more overall because there are no clever ways to avoid tax liability. We get thousands of human life years back due to eliminating "doing your taxes". We eliminate the enormous economic drain of CPAs, IRS, and many of the special interests and lobbyists.
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A regressive tax system is defined as one where poor households pay a larger percentage of their income in taxes than wealthy households.
Any sales tax based tax system is going to be regressive because poor people spend a larger percentage of their income and they spend much more of it on things that are taxed. That is clearly shown in states choose to raise they majority of their tax revenue though a sales tax.
The complexity of doing taxes is not because we have an income tax - it is because we chose to make our income tax complicated.
We could pay a simple rate without deductions.
We could tax individuals not households
The IRS could calculate our taxes for us which is what most of the developed world does.