This is my biggest problem with our current income tax, it is not fair, special interest groups run it and pay off Congress for their special interests. Who in their right mind can say it is fair and equitable? It is used for social engineering and payoffs. I believe 50% of lobbyist lobby for tax breaks.....lets eliminate that and give the power back to the people where it belongs...I agree. But you need to realize the income tax started pretty simple, too. We're just ~90 years down the line. If we go to a NRST, how many stories about a little girl dying because her parents couldn't afford the sales tax on her surgery before congress exempts life-saving surgery? How many stories with pathetic looking old people complaining they can't afford all their medications because of the sales tax before prescription drugs are exempt? How about daycare? Baby formula? Now fast forward 80 years...this system that appears simple could be more complex than the current one.
"Now fast forward 80 years...this system that appears simple could be more complex than the current one."
I think you are ignoring one very important factor. Most of the complexity in the current system is in the area of deductions. Holding periods for computing gains & losses, carry-forwards for all types of deductions, ceiling and floors ...... virtually all of the complexity is in the area of deductions. If you scrap the whole concept of taxable income, you greatly limit congress's discretion to complicate.
If you had said that there is a risk that congress will complicate a well thought out plan and compromise its simplicity, which is one of its strengths, my response is that I agree, which is why we have to be vigilant and make sure congress doesn't pass some mutant version of the FairTax bill and call it the FairTax.
However, when you say that this proposal could end up becoming as complex as the current system, that is going a bit far IMHO.