The founders were right. No income tax at all.
A sales tax at a flat rate.
Any income tax gets the government unnecessarily into your business.
If we stay with this income tax model, then I also believe that a household is a business as much as a business is, and everything required to make that business work is tax deductible.
IF it takes buildings, machines, transport, wages, etc., to make a business profitable, then it takes the same for the individual or family.
What a business considers “cost of doing business”, then it is the same for an individual.
It takes transportation, food, clothing, shelter, utilities, etc.
Anything above those reasonable expenses is “profit” and taxable.
That is, IF we stay with this income model.
A sales tax is the best way to go. If govt raises the rate it has an immediate effect on the economy and it becomes much more difficult to manipulate the public.
I really doubt we will ever see a national sales tax, except if the income tax remains in place. I think the various interest groups that benefit from the existing tax code would fight any change. Realtors will fight because of the interest deduction. Lawyers and accountants will fight because they make a good living with the existing tax code. Politicians don't want to change it because they get a lot of campaign money and power with the existing system.