Not if there is a minimum income tax rate regardless of deductions or credits. Currently, people with low incomes can reduce their taxable income to zero with deductions and even get refunds so they pay negative tax rates via child tax credits, EITC, etc. If there was a minimum tax rate of 10% of GROSS Income, including everything as Income like government benefits and muni bonds, then those people would not be able to skate.
The problem with a sales tax is that it encourages people to spend their money outside the country instead of here. The Fairtax, for example, NEEDS the very wealthy to spend all their income in America — if the top 1% does not spend their $3T annual income in America, the Fairtax has a huge hole in its claimed revenue to the tune of $700B/yr.
There are many other problems with the FT in particular, but any tax that has high rates at the margin and low rates at the bottom are bad. It pushes the idea that government should be free for the less successful citizens and expensive for the more successful.
Sales tax for all. It’s simple and extractable. If money is spent outside the country, goods brought back are still taxable. Remember the declaration form we all fill out on return. The benefit dependent still spend their benefits and when they do, they still pay the sales tax.