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Current US tax rates increase taxes on the wealthy (in theory, anyway). A flat tax would burden the relatively poor with increased taxes. Since the wealthy don'
by FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
Current US tax rates increase taxes on the wealthy (in theory, anyway). A flat tax would burden the relatively poor with increased taxes. Since the wealthy don't greatly contribute to growth and the relatively poor do, I don't see how an increased tax on the growth producers actually helps to crete growth.
- vmception 6y agoevery proposal is going to change the tax burden, thats the nature of changing the tax burden
- pc86 6y agoI'm curious why you think "the wealthy don't greatly contribute to growth and the relatively poor do." We'd also probably need to define at what point one becomes "wealthy" and what the range is for "relatively poor." Most flat tax proposals I've seen exempt the first $x. So it ends up that the people hurt the most by common flat tax proposals are the middle and lower-middle class. Upper-middle is basically the same effective tax rate and beyond that pays substantially less. The only time I've seen the upper brackets pay a higher ETR under a flat tax is if it includes all unearned income which is almost never the case.
- danielfoster 6y agoWhy not just make tax rates low for everyone? A flat tax does not necessarily have to be high.
- FlyMoreRockets 6y agoBecause somebody has to pay for the things that enable growth: roads, schools, libraries, airports, hospitals, etc...
- AmandaPowWow 6y agoWhether these actually enable growth is debatable
- throw_away 6y agoIf you simultaneously got rid of all the deductions, loopholes, etc and made it a true flat tax on all income, then it might work out that the effective rate of a flat tax policy could be more progressive than the results of our "progressive" tax policy. I would be interested in seeing what values of ax+b (a being the rate and b being the standard [+ perhaps only] deduction) would work out to be income neutral to our current convoluted algorithm.
- UncleMeat 6y agoI don’t buy this for a second. Even my rich lobbyist family member who abuses the hell out of the tax code to right off ridiculous things is paying a much higher effective rate than somebody making 40k and taking the standard deduction.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- burntbridge 6y ago> If you simultaneously got rid of all the deductions, loopholes, etc and made it a true flat tax on all income, then it might work out that the effective rate of a flat tax policy could be more progressive than the results of our "progressive" tax policy. Define "income"