What I do know is this: Our current tax system is corrupt, unfair, and extremely destructive to our nation and our society. The current people in Washington, and CPAs across the nation, feed and nurture this true crisis.
Change is imperative.
I know I can't count on the current corrupt politician to make a good determination as to flat, fair, or whatever. The only thing I can do it support total regime change in Washington, and hope for leaders who care about the future of our nation.
The larger problem is not tax collection. The greater problem is spending. Until spending gets back under tax revenue, we are still borrowing money and that has to stop.
Let me count the ways the current income tax has become a massive impediment to the US economy:
1. You have HALF the lobbyists in Washington, DC--something like over 30,000--lobbying for "tweaks" in the Internal Revenue Code to favor or punish as little as ONE taxpayer.
2. The Federal government uses the income tax code as a political tool to favor or punish any constituency.
3. The result: a tax code of 70,000-plus pages of Internal Revenue Code plus additional rulings so complex that even the IRS can't figure out much of the code!
4. The yearly compliance and economic opportunity cost of the tax code is around US$450 BILLION per year.
5. It discourages savings and investment in the USA, since bank account interest, capital gains and stock dividend payments are counted towards adjusted gross income.
6. It encourages the export of millions of jobs, thousands of factories, and hundreds of corporate headquarters for tax avoidance reasons. This means a higher unemployment rate than necessary.
7. It results in circa US$14 TRILLION in American-owned liquid assets sitting in offshore financial centers for tax avoidance reasons, hurting the viability of banks and investment companies.
8. It also encourages illegal tax evasion on a huge scale. That's why there is a thriving underground economy with possibly as much as US$2 TRILLION involved that is beyond the reach of the IRS for the most part.
In short, complete economic insanity. I would not be surprised if Obama is defeated in 2012 by a Republican candidate, income tax reform will be of highest priority, to say the least.
our current tax code started as a flat tax...
the fair tax is the answer.
teeman