There is an actual tax plan called ‘The FAIR Tax”
It is 27% at the cash register, but the tax is hidden by using a ‘tax inclusive’ method. (you only see the price with tax included, it’s hard to tell what the tax is)
I have tried to argue with ‘fair tax’ proponents that you never want to hide the tax, and ‘tax inclusive’ is not how sales tax is added now. They always try to give some convoluted argument an how much better ‘tax inclusive’ is. It’s like liberal zealotry.
I’ve never seen ‘national sales tax’ proposals with a rate as high as 27%.
Looking at a receipt on my desk I see state taxes listed so it’s not exactly hidden. On gas pumps I see listed all the taxes from local to state again not hidden. It’s not my fault that people don’t pay any attention to it. It seems easy with today’s technology to add another line on the printed receipt for federal taxes. If you want to talk about a ‘hidden tax’, paycheck withholding is a prime example. To me the only danger in a national sales tax is how easily it could turn into a ‘value added tax’ - a VAT. I’ve seen study after study that a national sales tax would be more economically beneficial since it only taxes economic activity - transactions that might involve the power of the state to enforce. One of its most positive features would be in capital formation; not taxing wealth would be a big plus in building investment capital. Increasing investment capital is something we desperately need. The problem I see there is defining and tracking ‘transactions’ and how it is reflected in the final point-of-sale price. I could go on but I won’t.
I am not hostile at all to flat tax proposals. It’s better than what we have now. However, didn’t the income tax essentially start out as a flat tax? Never be more that 5% or something at the highest incomes level. Now look at it!