Seriously.

[Dotard]

What is the problem with a flat tax? 10% across the board. No deductions for kids or whatever.

Seems to me that is the most fair taxation of all. Everyone pays 10% (arbitrary number, could be whatever 9, 8, 12) of their total income.
No deductions, total gross income for individuals, total net profits for buisnesses. Simple shit, what opposition can you have with this?

Super simple tax code, minimum paperwork, simplified payroll deductions. I'm sure there would be many other tangible benifits also.

Somebody school me here. What am I not seeing?

[Autumnlicious]

Because 10% of my income is 5,700 and I barely make ends meet as it is.

10% of Bill Gates income would still leave him room to make hundreds of people's ends meet.

Is that simple enough for you!?

[Erinome]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/busine...oblem.html

[Jackalope]

10% of my income is more money than a friend of mine (with 2 kids) makes in a year. As it stands today, she depends on her tax return (with various credits) to "catch up". A 10% tax rate would be no big deal for me - it would be ruinous to her. It would literally erase 35% of the money she has to live on (assuming you're doing away with credits along with the deductions).

[Dotard]

Because 10% of my income is 5,700 and I barely make ends meet as it is.

10% of Bill Gates income would still leave him room to make hundreds of people's ends meet.

I see nothing wrong with that.

Damn it! I hate math. So you make 57,000 dollars a year? Why is it you are 'barely making ends meet'?

10% of mine is 2500 and I do just fine. But that's beside the point, it's not based on your lifestyle, just your income. So what if Bill Gates has billions left after his 10%? So what if you have $51,300 after your taxes. So what if I have $22,500.

We all paid an equal percentile of our income. We earn what we earn.

Do you have anything better than that? I'm not feeling sorry for you or jealous of Bill.

---

10% of my income is more money than a friend of mine (with 2 kids) makes in a year.

See above.

---

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/busine...oblem.html

The hard step in figuring your tax bill is to compute your taxable income...

There's the first problem. No "adjusted" gross income, just Gross. That's it.

[Jackalope]

Let me put it more plainly.

Your proposal fucks the working poor in the ass.

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In addition, doesn't taxing business to pay tax on net profits allow them to continue the same accounting shenanigans they've been doing forever? I ask because you did make the distinction that it was net profits (I.e. bottom line) rather than gross (e.g. EBITDA).

[Autumnlicious]

His "proposal" relies on these fantasies:

1) Rich people earned it the hard way.
2) You earn what you deserve
3) You magically can support losing percentages of your income when you are low income instead of judging based off of cost of living.

Damn it! I hate math. So you make 57,000 dollars a year? Why is it you are 'barely making ends meet'?

Because I live in the motherfucking Bay Area and support three people? I live extraordinarily cheaply, take the two hour train to and from my work, and it still is fucking expensive. Did I also mention that I live in the mountains?

If my entire salary went just to me, you can be fucking assured I'd be A-OK. But I'm not. Why?

Because the world isn't fucking ideal and many, many people support more than their own hides.

10% of mine is 2500 and I do just fine. But that's beside the point, it's not based on your lifestyle, just your income. So what if Bill Gates has billions left after his 10%? So what if you have $51,300 after your taxes. So what if I have $22,500.

What is it? WHAT IS IT?

Money is not a "magical infinite spring" -- it can be better approximated as a zero sum game. So if Billy G. has billions in storage, what economic good can that possibly do?

None, because it is cloistered away and held like some reservoir.

So the "benefit" (often espoused by trickle-down-cock suckers) is nil even then, because the fucking cash just sits there.

We all paid an equal percentile of our income. We earn what we earn.

Do you have anything better than that? I'm not feeling sorry for you or jealous of Bill.

Nope, I think "No, because it will wipe out my support net to help some money-hoarding billionaire families and I fucking don't like it" is a pretty damn good argument.

[Minimalist]

What is the problem with a flat tax? 10% across the board. No deductions for kids or whatever.

Because it then becomes a regressive tax that fucks the poor far more than the rich.

Coincidentally ( or not ) this idea is being pushed by rich fucks.

Now. Why do you think that is, Dote?

[Jackalope]

I'd find this a lot more palatable with a generous personal exemption, say a million dollars.

[Perhaps]

Flat tax works in a non-capitalist society where the taxes go towards collective needs, and not towards wars and non-necessary public spending. If you could be guaranteed free education, health care, etc. with a flat tax then it would be easily accepted. But the problem comes in when everyone pays the same percentage but all of the tax money doesn't go towards collective needs.