[Logical me]

If one lives in the real world an immediate scrap of the tax code is impossible without total collapse of the entire Federal Government. A beta check of any complete change would have to be done and that is impossible. So what is the answer. Not 999 for sure. Too much of America could not gear up for this massive change. It involves bookkeeping that every business would have to do not to mention how the system would be audited with any accuracy. A more coherent way would be to start a gutting process on the system of tax and would take years. Perry has the right idea. I marvel at the intelligent people that just think that a change is like just turning off a faucet.

[fightinJAG]

Not very logical.

Of course, in the real world major reform legislation is never imposed without a transition period and some grandfathering in of certain provisions.

Even Reagan’s tax cuts did not take effect for TWO YEARS. This was to allow business and individuals to transition.

And oh btw, the present Fedzilla code scraps provisions right and left whenever some congresscritter wants to or finds it politically advantageous. Ask an accountant how many times the depreciation schedules have been changed on a dime.

So people need not act as though they have blessed security and stability under the present code.

And this would only get worse under Perry’s plan because it balkanized taxpayers into two groups (flat tax payers and Fedzilla taxpayers), with each group having even less political clout than today to fend off tax hikes, crony capitlism and so on. There will be more shenanigans and sudden changes than ever.