So I guess my first question is how do you define what “someone earns?” Is it just wages? Does it include Soc Sec, dividend income, interest income, alimony, child support? If you are a sole prop, is it revenue or do you account for costs? Second question is how does allowing charitable deductions solve the issue of targeting tax exempt groups? Does not somebody still have to determine what a charity is?
Exactly.
Those (and many other questions) are why I ceased to support the “flat tax” proposal and am now a fan of a national retail sales tax.
In order for the IRS to define “income” they need very long, intrusive snouts and definitions of what is “income.”
In a national retail sales tax, we already know what a retail sale is. Charge a tax at that point and send in the money.