States' 'flat tax' mania: Better for taxpayers or another gift to billionaires?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

With President Joe Biden proposing to force billionaires to shoulder higher income tax burdens, more states have been employing a handy old idea to head in the opposite direction.

They have embraced the flat tax or flat-rate tax as a single-tier system is known. It is hailed by many GOP governors and legislatures as a way to promote what they perceive as greater fairness for all taxpayers and to attract business to their states.

At the same time, the flat tax hasn’t lost any of its controversy. The system still prompts an outcry from critics who deride it as a regressive scheme that flies in the face of trying to narrow the income gap.

Enthusiasm for the flat tax built on the American political scene when it became the centerpiece of publishing magnate Steve Forbes’ unsuccessful runs for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000. Besides saying the tax would be fairer to all, Forbes vowed that the flat tax would make filing returns to the IRS as simple as mailing in a postcard.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/states-flat-tax-mania-better-for-taxpayers-or-another-gift-to-billionaires/ar-AAW3EgC

[Ocelot II]

1. It's worse for lower income people, as is the case with most GOP ideas.

If you make only $25,000 a year, $2,500 is a pretty big bite and you have only $22,500 left to live on. If you make $25,000,000 a year the IRS gets $2,500,000, which is a lot of money, except that you have $22,500,000 left for the year, so you can still buy that new Beemer, pay the nanny, furnish the summer place and send your oldest kid to Harvard.

[BlueJac]

2. Is Rick Scott working on this, sounds like another srew job.

Go pre Reagan tax cut days. Make the ultra rich pay more, especially if they can afford to play space man.

[Midnight Writer]

3. Illinois voted down a referendum to replace our flat income tax with a graduated (progressive) one.

It would have eliminated the tax altogether for the poorest citizens, and given a nice tax break for most people.

Of course, there was an ad blitz against it. In front of the homes of the poorest people around here, there were yard signs urging voters to kill "the Pritzker Tax".

The measure lost decisively, mainly because the poor and working class folks were convinced that it would raise their taxes.

[murielm99]

4. The ads were filled with blatant lies

and it was very hard to counter them.

Many people in my red area have "Pritzker Sucks" signs in their yards. I have noticed that some of those signs are in the poorest areas, where people would benefit most from Pritzker's ideas. I have a sign that says, "Thank you, Governor Pritzker." I have mentioned before that I live on a hill and have a very visible yard in a high traffic area.

[raccoon]

5. It's another regressive tax like sales tax. It sucks. Nt

[Rebl2]

6. Yep

[msongs]

7. I ran the numbers one year and came out about the same @20% vs itemizing nt

[lagomorph777]

8. Why is there any controversy? It's obviously a gift to billionaires.