I have never investigated the flat tax because of my interest in the NRST. All I know is the few sketches of information I picked up here, there, and yonder. My opinion is that the appeal of it is that you only report a small amount of information when you file, the postcard thing, and the rate is fixed and is the same for everyone.
However, it seems to me that the figuring of the tax you owe, the number you put on the postcard, involves pretty much all the machinations of taking deductions, etc., that are in the present system. It is just reported on a simpler form and the final calculation is fixed rather than determined by a tax table.
Is that correct?
The number on the postcard is merely the attraction put forth for the public but your presumption about the actual calculation method is correct.
It is all of the other things mentioned in #89 that should be of more concern, I think, since their effects are much greater than just the calculation. And, after all, it is clear from almost 100 years of trying that income tax laws can be easily changed to screw up anything (witness the current Tax Panel's work - even though not presently a change in law, think of what it would do were it to become so).