Like a flat tax?


Simple, yes. Fair?


Walt wrote:
With the right exemptions, it can be. Say, a flat X percent with the
first Y dollars exempt.

Then it's no longer a flat tax. It's a step-function
progressive tax.

IMHO it would be far more fair, and waste a heck of a lot
less productive effort, to have income taxes either
eliminated altogether (not likely, the Feds depend on it far
too much) or made into a very simple equation with few
exceptions, exclusions, loopholes, etc etc.

That way, an argument about whether the tax was unfair to
rich people could focus on where it should be, the marginal
rate of increase of the tax at some given income level.

But that's not likely, since too many people want to start
the argument by thrusting their own silly assumptions
("taxes should cater to the self-intterst of the wealthiest
5%") forward as axioms.

DSK