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The flat tax would work if they would just leave it at that, a "flat tax".

Work? to what end?

Definitely not to keep government growth in bounds. Not while it allows taxation to be hidden behind a veil of inflation by taxing business and corportions, or otherwise disguise taxes with labels pretending to be something other than what they are, A burden on every citizen.

It definitely does not work to preserve or increase personal liberty, or privacy of the citizen. Any income tax no matter how cleverly contrived must of necessity demand proof of the financial state and earnings of all citizens to be enforcible.

Income taxes are especially onerous for they lay an affirmative burden to report and prove creating a legal jeopardy that can be exploited at whim by the unscrupulous.

The fundmental issues of taxation have been known for hundreds of years and income taxes, capitations and property taxes imposed on individual owners have always been the worst of all mechanisms for the job of raising revenues "to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States;"

Adam Smith in, The Wealth of Nations (Book V, Chapter II), laid out four things to be considered as guiding principles in designing an appropriate tax system -

I. The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state . . . .
II. The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain, and not arbitrary. The time of payment, the manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, ought all to be clear and plain to the contributor, and to every other person . . . .
III. Every tax ought to be levied at the time, or in the manner, in which it is most likely to be convenient for the contributor to pay it . . . .
IV. Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to take out and keep out of the pockets of the people as little as possible over and above what it brings into the public treasury of the state . . . ."

An Income tax(i.e. Flat Tax), no matter how carefully constucted, falls short on all counts.

Furtheremore , in Wealth of Nations pp. 561-64, he had this to say about bad taxes:

1. A tax was bad that required a large bureaucracy for administration.
2. A tax was bad that "may obstruct the industry of the people, and discouraged them form applying to certain branches which might give maintenance and employment to great multitudes. While it obliges the people to pay, it may thus diminish, or perhaps destroy, some of the funds which might enable them more easily to do so."
3. A tax was bad that encouraged evasion. "The law, contrary all the ordinary principals of justice, first creates the temptation, and then punishes those who yield to it. "Evasion is also bad, says Smith, because it tends to "put an end to the benefits which the community might have received from the employment of their capitals."
4. A tax is bad that put the people through "odious examinations of the tax-gatherers, and exposes them to much unnecessary trouble, vexation, and oppression...It is in one or other of these four different ways that taxes are frequently so much more burdensome to the people than they are beneficial to the sovereign"

Unfortunately, Income Taxes, whether they be flat round or otherwise meet these conditions all to readily.

The Intent of the individual income tax is for political and social control not revenue collection. The Individual Income tax is maintained to establish and hold every person in the country perpetual legal jeopardy.

That is a situation that must end with the repeal of the income tax from the statutes, and the prohibition of its use by Constitutional amendment that future generations will not face the same manner of manipulation and interference in their lives.

You cannot do that and maintain any income tax on the books, Flat or otherwise.

Everyone pays 10% regardless of income, investments, ect. No loopholes no deductions period.

A single stage, single rate, comprensive sales tax can do that.

In fact HR2525 is designed to achieve that kind of goal.

Total fed taxes as reflected through gross family income is 23.5% (taxfoundation)

H.R.2525 imposes a 23% retail sales tax on the total expenditure for all retail goods and services no exceptions, but only once at first retail sale.

Since it is a replacement for 94% of the current federal taxes we can measure the effect of removing programs from the federal budget.

23%........... NRST rate

14.91% ..... rate if Social Security and Medicare were privatized
14% .......... rate if Nat'l Endowment for the Arts were eliminated
11.9%........ rate if Dept. of Education were eliminated
10% .......... rate if welfare were eliminated
etc.

Hmmmmmm.......

That is how to achieve a real 10% flat tax, with no exemptions, no deductions, no exceptions, at the lowest overhead cost possible, and most importantly with the least intrusion into our privacy and liberties.