[Smokin' Joe]

Another reason I like the Flat Tax. Send the government 10% of your income and go about your business.

Yep. No smoke, no mirrors, no little walnut hulls in a row. Fill out a postcard sized form and cut the check. It does not get any simpler than that, and would have saved me 10-15K last year (15% to 10% rate).

[Principled]

10% or even 15% would be great!

But the flat tax proposals are not that low. Not nearly.

17% marginal on personal income plus 7.65 ee payroll [often not mentioned by the flat proponents] plus 7.65 er payroll [also usually not mentioned by flat proponents] plus business taxes which result in higher prices - like today's graduated income tax.

Ends up about 24.65% marginal [which is 32.7% exclusive] on ee side - which is withheld plus the higher prices due to business costs... about 9% of spending.

The flat tax is by definition a VAT because of how it adds tax at every stage of production. It is a subtraction method VAT.

If they could get it to 10%, i'd love it.