count all income as income. tax everybody at the same rate. simple and really fair. more like Steve Forbe's flat tax.
Little problem with Steve Forbes et.al.'s flat tax. The rules for separating income that is taxable from return of capital that is not, keeps the complexity just where it is now, the requirement for audits by an IRS remain and all the controvercies that arise over what is taxable and what is not, with verification of what is claimed as taxable for both individual and business, regardless of one's income level claimed for under the Flat tax. It isn't the size of the final report card not the number of tax brackets that make the complexity and nastiness of the the current tax system, is the details that don't go away by just calling something a flat tax.
Tax preparers and consultants are still slobbering over the potentials of the "Flat Tax" that does nothing to reduce Congresses favorite section of the tax code that provides the basis of there perpetual "contributions" from interested parties.
Mash yer clicker here for verse & chapter on that one:
Flat Tax as Seen by a Tax Preparer
by Vern Hoven
you see? ,my version of the Flat Tax treats ALL income as income. ALL income is taxed regardless of source. whether i's capital gains, returns on investments, wages, whatever. This is where Forbes and I part ways. One's entire portfolio is taxed at the same rate as is the income of everybody else. no loopholes, no exceptions.