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Topic: Flat tax

	A Brief Guide to the Flat Tax
		Flat tax proposals would eliminate the tax code’s bias against capital formation by ending the double taxation of income that is saved and invested.
		The Estonian flat tax is now down to 24 percent and will drop to 20 percent by 2007, and Lithuania is in the process of lowering its 33 percent flat tax to a more reasonable 24 percent.
		Furthermore, since the family-based allowance under a flat tax is twice as high for a married couple as it is for those filing singly, that part of the marriage penalty also disappears.
	www.heritage.org /Research/Taxes/bg1866.cfm (3544 words)

	The Christian Library: The Moral Case for the Flat Tax (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-27)
		Flat tax advocates like myself are often criticized for focusing too much on "dollars and cents" issues instead of on moral issues.
		The taxes on our income, capital gains, and corporate profits are the price we pay for the privilege of working, the price we pay for being productive, and the price we pay for being innovative and successful If the price we pay becomes too high, we get less of these things.
		With the flat tax, they would owe nothing, and their income over $36,000 would be taxed at a flat 17 percent rate.
	www.christianityinternational.com /flattax.html (2049 words)

	washingtonpost.com: U.S. Administrator Imposes Flat Tax System on Iraq
		The flat tax, long a dream of economic conservatives, is finally getting its day -- not in the United States, but in Iraq.
		Iraq has a flat tax, and the 15 percent rate is even lower than Forbes (17 percent) and Gramm (16 percent) favored for the United States.
		John B. Taylor, undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs, said the Iraq flat tax was discussed before the war as preliminary planning was done with the help of some Iraqi exiles.
	www.washingtonpost.com /ac2/wp-dyn/A50031-2003Nov1?language=printer (997 words)

	Flat tax in TutorGig Encyclopedia
		Flat taxes are uncommon in advanced economies, whose nationwide taxes typically include a graduated tax on household incomes and corporate profits, such that the marginal tax rate rises as the income or profit of the taxed entity rises.
		Flat tax plans that are presently being advanced in the United States also seek to redefine "sources of income"; current progressive taxes count interest, dividends and capital gains as income, for example, while Steve Forbes's variant of the flat tax would apply to wages only.
		Proponents of the flat tax claim it is fairer than progressive taxation, since "everybody pays the same." Opponents point out that for the state to raise the same amount of money under a flat rate tax requires that the rich pay less and the poor pay more than they would under a progressive tax system.
	www.tutorgig.com /ed/Flat_tax (4141 words)

	The Freedom to Choose Flat Tax
		Tax reformers must now acknowledge the message that the political marketplace has been sending us for the past few years: the flat tax has broad-based appeal to voters, but there are still many millions of Americans who are emotionally attached to tax deductions and are very suspicious of politicians who want to take them away.
		The politically strategic way to implement a flat tax is to empower Americans with a choice between the current convoluted, swiss-cheese tax code and a simple post-card-return flat tax with zero deductions.
		The flat tax will become the law of the land in the United States only if and when Americans are free to choose it.
	www.cato.org /dailys/6-09-98.html (1090 words)

	The Flat Tax Plot on Texas
		The flat tax rate is supposed to fall to 17% after two years--the figure usually cited by Forbes--but, in fact, the rate would actually have to be considerably higher than the proposed 20% to avoid enormous additions to the federal budget deficit.
		The new flat tax would also be imposed on employer-paid fringe benefits, including benefits paid by state and local governments and non-profit organizations.
		As proposed, the flat tax would add an estimated $49 billion to the annual federal budget deficit at its proposed 20% tax rate, with the loss ballooning to $156 billion a year at the eventual 17% tax rate.
	www.ctj.org /html/flattx.htm (1118 words)

	Flat Tax - Fair Tax - by Andy Coy (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-27)
		I believe the flat tax is the only way to get us out of the present grotesque, awkward, cumbersome and socialistic tax system we have now.
		The flat tax is the only way to make sure the extremely wealthy pay something rather than "working" a system where they pay next to nothing.
		There are also those that say the flax tax must be revenue neutral, meaning that whatever the federal government is pulling in now under the present system, must be the exact same amount under a new flat tax.
	www.lee-county.com /Coy/flattax.htm (1181 words)

	TaxReturnGuide.com Articles on Tax Types > Flat tax (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-27)
		In America the flat tax is associated with a proposal advanced by Robert Hall and Alvin Rabushka, two economists at the Hoover Institution.
		A flat tax would not eliminate the need for spending control; it would not deal with the impending financial distress of Social Security and Medicare; it would not even settle the arguments about the so-called consumption tax (since in principle a flat tax could take as its base either all income, or income n...
		The basic idea is the same as a flat tax with personal deductions, except that it implements a perfectly neutral wealth redistribution system which ingeneously avoids any possibility of welfare trap incidence while distributing the money in what economists regard as the most efficient manner- as cash (as opposed to food stamps, medicaid, etc).
	www.taxreturnguide.com /Flat_tax_s155.html (1063 words)

	Top 20 Encyclopedia
		The flat tax is not used in many developed countries on a national level, standing in contrast to the more widely used progressive income tax, in which citizens and corporations with higher incomes pay tax at a higher rate than those with lower income.
		Flat tax plans that are presently being advanced in the United States also seek to redefine "sources of income"; current progressive taxes count interest, dividends and capital gains as income, for example, while the flat tax plan advanced by Steve Forbes narrows the definition of income to apply only to employee wages.
		Opponents of lower taxes for the rich argue that the predictable end result of the race to the bottom is complete social collapse (see also failed states), a situation from which even the richest people in society will derive no benefit.
	encyc.connectonline.com /index.php/Flat_tax (3064 words)

	Flat tax \| European Union Taxation
		Analysts are inclined to point out that while in the first half of the 19th century the flat tax rate was the norm in the industrialising states, the first loud calls for a “heavy progressive or graduated income tax” came from Karl Marx in his 1848 Communist Manifesto.
		Although ‘flat tax’ is not touted as a panacea to all economic ills, an increasing number of European countries — among them a few new EU member states — have introduced, are developing or at least are debating one-size-fits-all tax regimes.
		One key conclusion cited by several researchers is that the efficiency and success of a flat rate regime is inherently dependent on the actual level of the tax rate: the lower it is, the more efficient it tends to become.
	www.euractiv.com /en/taxation/flat-tax/article-136190 (1771 words)

	Flat Tax Proposals: Armey, Forbes, Kemp, Gramm
		The flat tax would also apply (without exemptions) to employer-paid fringe benefits, defined to include employer-paid health insurance, certain other fringe benefits and the social security taxes (7.65% of wages up to $63,700) that employers pay on their employees' behalf.
		Employer-paid social security taxes would not be subject to the flat tax as a "fringe benefit." In addition, workers would deduct their share of social security taxes from their taxable wage income on their individual tax return.
		Individuals would still report capital gains on their tax forms, but the portion of capital gains subject to tax would be reduced, by indexing the basis of capital assets for inflation.
	www.ctj.org /html/flatsum.htm (993 words)

	US Administrator Imposes Flat Tax System on Iraq - UN Security Council (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-27)
		Iraq has a flat tax, and the 15 percent rate is even lower than Forbes (17 percent) and Gramm (16 percent) favored for the United States.
		John B. Taylor, undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs, said the Iraq flat tax was discussed before the war as preliminary planning was done with the help of some Iraqi exiles.
		The highest marginal tax rate on personal and corporate income is 15 percent." Iraq's new finance minister, Kamil Mubdir Gailani, is considered a follower of Ahmed Chalabi, the Western-oriented banker who has closely adhered to the Bush administration's economic policies, according to one expert on the Iraqi economy.
	www.globalpolicy.org /security/issues/iraq/occupation/2003/1102tax.htm (1103 words)

	All Eyes on Slovakia's Flat Tax — HBS Working Knowledge
		Flat taxes were relatively easier to introduce in Central and Eastern Europe because tax collection was limited under the communist regimes.
		But in fact, the flat tax proposals of these two individuals, together with the Slovak example, cannot be deemed true flat taxes because of the tax exemptions that have been added at the bottom.
		So one could question whether the theoretical flat part of the flat tax concept is in fact what has been attractive or whether the flat aspect has been a political way to sell the overall tax reform, and hence mostly low taxes.
	hbswk.hbs.edu /item/5653.html (2755 words)

	Flat Tax Folly - Mises Institute
		A flat tax that reduces the taxpayer's discomfort by masking how much tax is being paid while at the same time simplifying the filing process will eliminate both the sting and the bite of paying taxes.
		Yes, the tax rates would be lower under a flat tax than they are under the current system, but the rates were much lower back then without a flat tax.
		Reagan is praised as a great tax cutter, but no mention is made of the Social Security tax rate increasing from 10.16 percent when he took office to 12.12 percent when he left, or the Medicare tax rate increasing from 2.1 percent when he took office to 2.9 percent when he left.
	www.lewrockwell.com /vance/flat-tax-folly.html (3347 words)

	Flat Tax Fiasco
		While this interest is largely fueled by a spate of proposals calling themselves a "flat tax" it is important to consider the idea of the flat tax itself apart from the specific proposals, especially since NONE of the "flat tax" proposals currently being considered actually addresses the true theoretical concept of a real flat tax.
		Since Forbes' plan reduces taxes on the poorest and especially favors the wealthy, but is supposed to be revenue-neutral (no loss of incoming tax revenues) once again it means the middle class working people would be the ones squeezed to make up for benefits to the rich.
		This principle is most obvious at the extremes: consider the effect of a flat 10% on a single mother supporting her family working as a seamstress in a garment sweatshop for minimum wage ($10,000 per year) and the effect of a flat 10% on a corporate CEO earning ten million dollars per year.
	www.wordwiz72.com /flattax.html (3385 words)

	Online NewsHour: Summary of Steve Forbes' Flat Tax Plan
		I am talking about across-the-board tax cuts that are deep and wide and permanent, that reach down to all Americans and get the suffocating weight of the IRS off their backs.
		Replace it with a pro-growth, pro-family tax cut that lowers tax rates to 17% across the board and expands exemptions for individuals and children so that a family of four would pay no taxes on the first $36,000 of income.
		Replace it with a flat tax that is a tax cut -- a pro-growth, pro-family tax cut that lowers tax rates to 17 per cent across the board and expands exemptions for individuals and children so that a family of four would pay no taxes on the first $36,000 of income.
	www.pbs.org /newshour/bb/congress/forbes_flat_tax.html (715 words)

	Flat Tax Calculator -- FreedomWorks.org
		You have the whole tax system run by a little old lady on a home computer, doing the work of all these thousands of bureaucrats and accountants.
		The current tax code has over 5.5 billion words, countless forms and instructions, and is too complex for the average taxpayer to comprehend.
		Under a flat tax, filing taxes would take mere minutes, and decreasing compliance costs would improve the economy; all of those billions of hours we spend filing taxes could be put to productive use.
	www.cse.org /flattax/index.php (307 words)

	Tax Policy Center \| Publications
		That is, the flat tax would be a consumption tax, even though it would look like a wage tax to households and a variant of a VAT to most businesses.
		A flat tax would provide huge gains for high-income households, both because their marginal tax rate would fall and because they consume relatively less of their income than do low-income households.
		As a result, if a flat tax were to raise as much revenue as the current one, the tax burden for the middle class would have to rise.
	taxpolicycenter.org /publications/template.cfm?PubID=8521 (2521 words)

	The Flat Tax
		Some exemptions/deductions may be eliminated along with a flat tax bill, but this will probably be a temporary compromise.
		This is probably because proposals for a flat tax come with the promise of the elimination of most exemptions/deductions.
		If this provision is added to the flat tax package, then poor people will live outside the income tax system.
	www.geocities.com /CapitolHill/Lobby/7146/flattax.html (625 words)

	Bruce Bartlett Opinion Editorial: The Liberal Case For A Flat Tax
		For example, this liberal paper dismissed the argument that a flat tax would erode progressivity, saying, "in a society where few people pay anything close to their legally required taxes, and wealthy individuals often pay no tax, the idea of a progressive tax code is an illusion."
		Sullivan is not the first left-winger to grasp the fact that the flat tax essentially is a liberal idea.
		If Gore were to support a flat tax --something Bush has declined to do -- it could give him the issue he needs to show voters he is willing to challenge the status quo and put forward a big, new idea, as Bush has done with Social Security privatization.
	www.ncpa.org /oped/bartlett/may3100.html (883 words)

	The Flat Tax --- Canadian Social Research Links
		In 1994, Estonia became the first country to institute the flat tax, charging 26% on all personal and corporate income with no deductions allowed.
		Of the many [personal income tax cut] proposals put forward by political parties of all stripes, the flat and dual tax plans proposed by the Canadian Alliance stand out as the most striking proposals to change the federal tax system.
		This study assesses these two personal income tax plans in detail and uses them as a springboard for a broader analysis of the requisites to improve taxation policy in Canada.
	www.canadiansocialresearch.net /flattax.htm (638 words)

	Flat Tax is the Way of the Future - Republican National Committee
		Certain politicians still believe in high tax rates, of course, but they feel compelled to move in the opposite direction since it is now increasingly easy for labor and capital to escape oppressive tax regimes by crossing national borders.
		Those forms of income are taxed at the business level, thus obviating any need to tax them at the individual level since that would violate the principle of no double taxation.
		A flat tax would not eliminate the damaging impact of taxes altogether, but by dramatically lowering rates and ending the tax bias against saving and investment, it would boost an economy’s performance.
	www.newsbull.com /forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=31416 (952 words)

	OpinionJournal - Extra
		And businesses would be taxed only on income made in the U.S. The economic boom the flat tax would unleash would be stupendous, ushering in a long-term, noninflationary expansion of historic proportions.
		The tax you pay on income is the price you pay for working; the tax on profits is the price you pay for being successful, and the levy on capital gains is the price you pay for taking risks that work out.
		A new dedicated bureaucracy would be necessary to collect the tax and to disburse rebates (which the plan's advocates propose) from Uncle Sam to tens of millions of Americans every month to repay them for a portion of the sales tax they pay on food and clothing.
	www.opinionjournal.com /extra/?id=110007139 (1484 words)

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