What is the difference between fair tax and flat tax? Which would benefit the lower middle class better?
The information you are looking for is here: Flat Tax Information
The flat tax has higher effective rates.
The flat tax is regressive due to the payroll tax.
The flat tax retains withholding.
The flat tax retains hidden taxes in prices to the same extent as today (due to business taxes).
The flat tax is not border-adjusted.
The nrst has lower marginal rates (29.87% te/23% ti and eliminates any income tax costs from being hidden).
The nrst has lower effective rates.
The nrst eliminates the payroll tax on wages from the employee AND from the employer.
The nrst eliminates withholding.
The nrst eliminates business income taxes and prevents those taxes from being hidden in prices.
The nrst is border adjusted - giving US mfg a chance at the world market (the US mfg base has shrunk by over 50% as a pct of GDP in the last 50 years).
Most of the anti-nrst folks - no, all of them - try to omit the fact that under any income tax, earnings are reduced long before you spend them. They simply omit that component from their "analysis".
For example, wrt federal taxes - today I'd have to earn $133 to buy a $100 baseball glove for my nephew b/c I pay a 25% effective federal tax rate.
Under the nrst, the invisible income tax costs (which represent a MINIMUM of 9% of retail prices - according to the anti-nrst people) will be eliminated. So the baseball glove goes down to $91. Then, under the nrst, my effective rate would be 17%. So I'd need to earn $109 to buy the glove.
You tell me if middle class would benefit.