The flat tax seems to work where it has been tied. The sales tax appears to be creating another big government agency of collectors and administrators, much like the IRS now. The sales tax appears to be nothing more than VAT and VAT is a beast that never stops biting. In order to get tax reform done and the IRS eliminated, we need to have both ideas shown side by side with bennies and problems for each, examine them both carefully, choose one and get the IRS out of our lives forever!
Please see #101.
Both the flat tax and the "fair tax" will require "some" bureaucracy to implement. But in both cases that bureaucracy will be tiny. Most of the work for the sales tax can be handled by the already-existing state bureaucracies that handle state sales tax---all that is necessary is that they forward a percentage of the tax already collected (along with some small fraction that goes into the state coffers as "funding for the mandate").
The sales tax and the VAT couldn't be more different. The VAT is THE original "stealth tax", and is completely hidden from the final consumer, so he or she is never aware of the REAL TAX BITE. The sales tax/fair tax is right there on the bottom line of every cash register receipt, as an incentive for every taxpayer to keep his or her Congresscritters noses to the grindstone to keep that "line item" as small as possible.