> I’d use Friedman’s 17% flat tax rate after a $20,000
> personal exemption...that’s it. The entire tax code would
> fit on a postcard.
Yes, but you would still be subject to the abuses and vicissitudes of the IRS.
The IRS must be eliminated, or reduced to collecting taxes from the states, preferably based on spending (sales tax), not manufacturing (no to VAT), and not income.
Why? Who's going to collect the national sales tax? It could be Treasury. If that's the case, they could also collect the Flat Tax. Indeed, since all income sources are subject to the tax, the payers of income would deduct the 17% on all income sources and send it to Treasury. At the end of the year, Treasury deducts the deduction and mails you a check for the difference. You wouldn't even have to file a return.
A VAT tax is probably the worst tax imaginable. Think about it: a tax on the "value added" (how do you really measure that?) at every step of the production/distribution process. Given that something a simple as bread has up to 67 steps, just think of the bureaucracy that would create.