Divide total personal taxes currently paid by total personal taxpayers to obtain a flat tax rate. Studies I have seen put this at 5 or 6%. This way everyone, rich, poor, married, single carries the same burden. Codify this into law. Codify a 2nd temporary personal tax rate with a sunset clause of 3%. This is to be used for 5 years only and can only be used to reduce debt. Remove all employees from IRS related to personal taxes. Before WWII there were was no income tax. It was to be a temporary tax to pay for the war.
What if our income tax system simply deducted federal and state income taxes from regular paychecks using a system similar to the current withholding process, but instead deducted the appropriate amount based on income earned to-date (thereby keeping a graduated tax scale as we do today)? The typical individual tax payer would have no more obligation after that!
All other incentives currently buried in the tax code (deductions, exemptions, tax credits) should first be reviewed for necessity, and if it passes vetting, it would be provided through some other system separate from income taxes. Maybe there is still a voluntary tax return filing process for what is envisioned to be a very limited number of special circumstances.
Our individual income tax system has become overly complex and dynamic, so much so that only a small percentage of Americans can complete their own taxes with some level of confidence that they are not underpaying or overpaying. As a result our government has created an entire multi-billion dollar industry to help individual taxpayers meet their ever-changing legal obligation without fearing that they are giving away too much.
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