There is nothing moral about a flat tax or any other tax that confiscates 17 percent, or any other percent, of someone’s income and then redistributes it, wastes it on government boondoggles, spends it on unconstitutional agencies or programs, sends it to foreigners and their governments, and funds unnecessary and immoral foreign military adventures.
Having a progressive income tax is indeed one of the 10 key planks of the Communist Manifesto and an instrument of class warfare. Yet the flat tax is also progressive, just like the current tax system with its seven tax brackets.
Tax season ended last month, but talk of tax reform is still very much with us.What is really needed is the abolition of welfare-warfare programs, along with the income tax that funds them.
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Many provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) that the Republican-controlled Congress passed, and President Trump signed into law, in 2017 will expire at the end of 2025, along with other temporary tax provisions not enacted by the TCJA—commonly known as “tax extenders.”
After 2025, marginal tax rates will revert to their pre-TCJA levels of 10, 15, 25, 28, 33, 35, and 39.6 percent. The basic standard deduction amounts will revert to their lower pre-TCJA levels and then be adjusted for inflation. The personal exemption will be reinstated and then be adjusted for inflation. The child credit will revert to its lower pre-TCJA amount. The “credit for other dependents” or “other dependent credit” (ODC) instituted by the TCJA will also expire. Cash contributions to charity will generally be limited to 50 percent of the taxpayer’s adjusted gross income (AGI). Taxpayers who itemize their deductions will no longer have a cap on their state and local tax (SALT) deduction, and the estate and gift tax exclusion amount will be cut in half and then be adjusted annually for inflation.
At a recent event in New York City, Steve Forbes—the editor-in-chief of Forbes who sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000—said that “he is advocating for Trump to support a flat 17% tax rate for all income brackets with ‘generous’ exemptions.’” For a family of four, Forbes suggests that the first $54,000 of income be exempt from federal income tax.
The event was organized by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, whose mission is “to educate policy makers and the public about government policies that have been proven, in practice, to maximize economic growth and equitable prosperity in America and around the world.” The founders of the committee are Arthur Laffer, Stephen Moore, Larry Kudlow, and Steve Forbes.
Forbes has been one of the biggest proponents of a flat tax, and it was the centerpiece of his presidential campaigns and the subject of his 2005 book, Flat Tax Revolution: Using a Postcard to Abolish the IRS (Regnery, 2005).
I have been one of the biggest critics of the flat tax—and the FairTax and every other conservative tax-reform plan. I first visited the flat tax idea in my 2006 review of Forbes’s book, and then again in my 2008 New American article, “The Flat Tax Is Not Flat.” I revisited the flat tax again in my 2015 LewRockwell.com article, “The Flat Tax Revisited.” I think it is now time to revisit the flat tax yet again.
According to Forbes:
NEXT TO THE UNSTABLE DOLLAR, the biggest deadweight today on the American economy is the horrific federal income tax code. It is past time we junked this incomprehensible, opportunity-killing and corrupting monstrosity and replaced it with a simple flat tax.
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