As a self described liberal who supports a flat tax, you need to look at it more closely. There is a rebate of the tax for the $$ amount of the federal poverty level. If you make no more than that [and hence spend no more than that] you really are not paying any tax as the tax on necessities has already been given to you and everyone else [a prebate, if you want to use the term]. Tax is collected only on final consumer sales, so personal, corporate and business to business sales are tax free. No more IRS, no more inheritance tax, no more tax of any kind except for a tax on a sale to the consumer. Buy a lot, you pay a lot of tax; buy a little, you pay little tax. I suspect many of our corporations who have moved offshore would return, and there would be no advantage to setting up an account offshore as there is no tax here. No tax loopholes, no tax shelters. I am sure there would be some problems with it, but compared to what we have now it should be less. BillR
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Alex Chamberlain Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 3:51 AM To: Mercedes Discussion List Subject: Re: [MBZ] OT: McCain proposes break in fuel taxes On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 7:52 PM, Wonko the Sane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I am all for a flat tax. I will give away my mortgage deduction (TurboTax > always points to standard deduction anyway, so why be buying a house?) if > everyone would pay x% of income (NO loopholes) in taxes. > > Let's say 5%. if you make $20K a year, you pay 5%. If you make $10,000,000 a > year, you pay 5%. Do the other Democrats know you feel this way? Have they tried to kick you out of their tree house yet? ;) Seriously, I've never heard anyone else who was a self-described liberal support a flat tax. Quite the opposite---it's usually the pet project of people who are unabashedly in the pocket of big business (e.g. Steve Forbes). Isn't a flat tax as regressive as you can get (short of charging a percentage inversely proportional to income)? It hits the poor a lot harder than the rich, surely. In your example above, 5% of $10,000,000 means one less condo in Lake Tahoe, new Bentley for the mistress, or splurge in Vegas... big deal. But 5% of $20K means Grandma doesn't get her heart medicine, or the kids don't get new winter coats. BIG deal. Alex Chamberlain _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
