I was just googling around and here is how to calculate your taxes from Gramm's 1996 flat tax proposal.
http://cgi.usatoday.com/elect/ep/epr/eprg011.htm
How to calculate your flat tax: To see whether you would pay, get a refund or break even, fill out the forms using figures from your 1994 federal income tax return or use figures from your 1995 W-2 forms for wages or salaries, 1099R forms for pension and retirement income and 1099 forms for interest, dividends and capital gains.
Print page for worksheet.
Mortgage interest and charitable deductions are deductible
_______ 1. Wages, salary, pension, retirement, interest, dividends, and capital gains
_______ 2. Standard deduction (select one)
o $22,000 for married filing jointly
o $11,000 for single and married filing separately
o $15,000 for single head of household
_______ 3. Mortgage interest and/or charitable contributions
_______ 4. Enter the greater of line 2 or line 3
_______ 5. Number of dependents, not including spouse, multiplied by $5,000
_______ 6. Add lines 4 and 5
_______ 7. Taxable compensation (line 1 minus line 6, if positive, otherwise zero)
_______ 8. Tax (16% of line 7)
_______ 9. Tax already paid
_______ 10. Tax due (line 8 minus 9) if positive
_______ 11. Refund due (line 9 minus line 8) if positive
Here is him talking about Forbe's flat tax plan
Q: What about the Steve Forbes phenomenon?
A: The Forbes phenomenon is a money phenomenon. Forbes is not a plausible candidate for president. In the end, he has built his campaign around a flat-tax proposal that's indefensible.
Q: Why do you say that?
A: No. 1, it's basically a tax on wages and salaries and not on investment income. Not only is it unfair, but it's inefficient because it's going to distort the investment patterns of the country away from education and training and human capital into financial capital. And No. 2, from the first day he wrote an editorial back in 1972 or 1973 until last month when he became a politician, Forbes has denounced in the most vehement terms balancing the federal budget. And as a result of not believing that deficits matter, when you work out his tax plan it almost doubles the budget deficit. I've said that as president I'll balance the budget in my first term or I won't run for re-election.
Q: Now that he is rising in the polls, do you think he'll get closer scrutiny?
A: For the first time, people are going back and looking at Steve Forbes' record. His record is that since the early 1970s, he's been writing editorials (in Forbes Magazine) and has supported a $1.50-a-gallon tax on gasoline, has supported gays in the military, opposed Ronald Reagan's election, supported giving away the Panama Canal, he has, until he became a politician, opposed the Reagan pro-life stance in the platform, he's been pro-choice. There's the Forbes of the TV commercials: slick, glossy, good. But when he has to step out from behind those TV commercials and defend his 20-year record of taking positions, when he has to defend his one position, which is the flat tax as he has proposed it, he can't defend it.
Q: Why would your flat-tax plan work and how?
A: My plan would tax all income equally. I would eliminate the inflation tax built into capital gains and depreciation schedules by indexing them so no one would pay tax on inflation. I would eliminate the dual taxation on dividends by having dividends and interest as a business expense. One of the reasons we have this rash of leveraged buyouts is that we have an inadequate supply of equity in corporate America because if you borrow through debt, the service of that debt is tax deductible; if you get equity, it's taxable.
Q: What else?
A: I would preserve charitable contributions because we want churches and charitable organizations to play a bigger role in America. I would preserve the mortgage-interest deduction because our party is the party of strong families and weak government. If we did make the changes that Forbes is proposing, it would have a very substantial impact on the value of existing homes. And I don't produce the big deficit that Steve Forbes does.
Just a news story about his flat tax plan.
DENVER - Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) wants to turn back time on taxes.
The Republican presidential hopeful, promoting a modified flat tax plan, said Monday, Jan. 22, 1996, his goal would be to "go back to 1950 when families sent one out every $50 earned to Washington."
"We're now sending one out of every $4 earned," he added during a campaign stop at a printing plant here.
When the federal budget was balanced for the last time in 1969, banks' prime rate was 3.5% and the average home mortgage rate was 4%, Gramm said. A return to those interest rates would free up hundreds and thousands of dollars each year for families, he added.
"The bad news is if we don't change the policy of government, the tax burden, crime, illegitimacy...soon and dramatically, in 20 years we won't be living in the same country we grew up in," Gramm said.
Gramm said he wants a balanced budget in four years and a 16% flat tax on all earnings, allowing mortgage-interest and charitable deductions.
He criticized GOP opponent publisher Steve Forbes' 17% flat tax plan because capital gains would be tax-free.
"I can't support a flat tax...that says people who work with their hands and heads pay taxes but those who live off their investments don't."
And Phil Gramn (whom I like) was running against Steve Forbes, the center piece of BOTH champagnes was a flat tax plan and you expect Gramn to give an honest objective opinion of his opponent plan? What planet are you from?