Income Inequality

[Minimalist]

That's why flat tax proponents are usually wealthy.  They want to tax earned income only and not interest or capital gains.

That isn't what flat tax means. Flat tax means the tax rate is the same regardless of the amount being taxed, e.g. a person earning $20k a year would get taxed 10% say, and a person earning $20 million a year would also get taxed 10%. Flat tax says nothing about what should be taxed; it's a way of implementing the tax rate.

You can implement a flat tax policy which taxes income, interest, capital gains, etc. You could even set different tax rates for each of those income types (e.g. 10% income tax, 20% capital gains) and still call it a flat tax, as long as the tax rate wasn't affected by the actual amount being taxed.

Yes, Divi Tiberio, you can.  But that is not part of the plan.

And Polecat, the AMT was a "fix" to the income tax law (not part of the law itself) which goes back to 1970 because even then rich fucks were gaming the system.  But that is precisely why they want to exempt dividends and capital gains from income.....while still taxing your wages.  If there was no AMT they wouldn't give a fuck about income taxes.  As Leona Helmsly said, infamously:  "Only the little people pay taxes."

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I realize I forgot to include a link.  Here's one sample from a familiar name.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/07/pf/taxes...-flat-tax/

Here are the few details we know about how Paul would structure his flat tax:

Single, flat tax rate: 17%

Paychecks: Individuals would pay 17% tax on wages and salaries. The net effective rate they pay would almost certainly be lower assuming they're allowed to take an exemption, which is typical under a flat tax. For example, say you gross $100 in income and get to exempt $20. You'd only pay 17% on the $80 that remains. That works out to be $13.60, or just 13.6% of your gross income.

Business income: Businesses would be subject to the same 17% rate.

Investment income: Capital gains, dividends and interest would be tax free.