By making the flat tax optional and maintaining the entire present albatross of the present tax code monstrousity and the IRS, Perry's plan seems to be building in more bureaucracy, more compliance costs, more desperation for crony capitalism to be pushed under the code, and more, rather than less, social division among Americans.
One of the very important principles that animates the 999 plan, a principle which comes from the Laffer Curve, is that the tax base must be broadened.
Perry's plan does not broaden the tax base (i.e., turn more non-taxpayers into taxpayers). And it further complicates and balkanizes the tax base we have now.
I don't see it.
Agree with everything you said.
Making it optional between 20% Flat Tax vs. Current IRS Code, will only exacerbate inequities in tax collection.
Those with the ability to lobby political influence and pay armies of tax attorneys to understand the byzantine complexities of the tax code, will continue to flood the code with even more arcane exemptions and deductions for themselves, with the excuse of, “well if you don’t like it, pay the 20% flat rate, LOL!”