IMHO, a constitutionally mandated flat tax of no more than x% (with war time and emergency exceptions) and no deductions, credits, exemptions or any type of off

IMHO, a constitutionally mandated flat tax of no more than x% (with war time and emergency exceptions) and no deductions, credits, exemptions or any type of offset allowed is the best solution. Everyone pays the same % and can plan on that happening every year. But this will probably never happen because politicians can make many things happen through the tax code and many special interests make extensive use of tax code. There is both good and bad that these lead to. Anything else we do is tinkering, because new codes that close loopholes will eventually lead to new codes that create new loopholes. Still a tinker here and a tinker there and maybe your can create a teapot out of a cauldron. Tinkering a plane out of a car may be easier than tinkering our income tax into better system.