Subject: FLAT TAX Comment: There is no question but that the present tax code has grown in complexity to the point of absurdity. It seems to me that the obvious answer, and the fairest one, to correct this travesty is a flat tax on all income and capital gains above a certain threshhold amount (to give a measure of relief to lower income individuals). The only deduction I would retain would be for charitable contibutions. I hasten to add that "charities" to which such a deduction is applicable would have to be scrutinized under rigid standards and over sight to make certain that they are not "fronts" established solely for tax avoidance. In proposing this solution, one of course has to be mindful of the fact that such a solution would severely impact certain accountants, lawyers, special interest groups presently receiving favored treatment, not to mention the army of government employees who are presently required to administering the existing code. Perhaps the efforts of the latter group could then be directed toward collection of the enormous amount of money which is admittedly due from the many filers who have simply not paid what they owe. This approach is certainly not a novel one. It has been proposed often in the past only to have the aforementioned special interest groups rally to defeat it. Hopefully the time has come for our elected representatives to "bite the bullet" and do what is right for all concerned. |