I say we axe income tax completely. Two reasons: 1) even a progressive income tax is highly regressive when one considers that the wealthy mostly don't even ea

I say we axe income tax completely. Two reasons: 1) even a progressive income tax is highly regressive when one considers that the wealthy mostly don't even earn employment income and therefore don't pay tax on it, and 2) taxation on income is the source of most discontent with redistributive policies. I propose a multi-layered tax code operating in coordination at each level of government. 1) Land Value Tax collected by local governments, with land valuations determined at the state level and the revenue redistributed as Universal Basic Income by the Federal government (your SSN becomes your UBI account number). Local governments may in turn add a percentage to the LVT to replace property tax revenues. Minor recipients of UBI (below age of 18) receive their income as a school voucher. The LVT replaces income and payroll taxes as the majority of aggregate national tax revenue, and the UBI replaces SS, EITC, and a host of other safety net programs. 2) a Progressive VAT to be collected by the states with Federal revenue sharing. This becomes the second largest source of tax revenue and funds the majority of state functions, with the Congress taxing a portion of state VAT revenues to fund the Federal government. Most domestic spending programs would be devolved to the states to fund and manage directly rather than redistribute as block grants. The VAT would be progressive in that it would primarily target non-essentials (not food, for example). 3) the rest of Federal revenue sources would come from taxing financial instruments (capital gains, etc), as well as its traditional sources like corporate tax, tariffs, duties, etc. It would also have the option of increasing its share of the VAT. The Federal budget would be significantly smaller than it is today but would be free of the large domestic spending programs (which it would still regulate), as well as from pork barrelling which would instead never leave state borders to begin with. Federal spending would instead focus on interstate and international commerce, defense, national initiatives (nasa, nih, etc). So yea, just a simple adjustment ;)