Flat-tax

If you're looking here, you're looking fo real answers.

The truth is that, if the fed gov was operation within its constitutional limits we wouldn't need the N.R.S.T., but such a method of taxation is a step in the right direction.

We must be sure to repeal the 16th amendment first, or we may end up with a worst-case scenario: An N.R.S.T. AND an income tax both!

Be sure also to read "Freedom in Chains" by James Bovard.

I thought this book was excellent. He demonstrates that a national sales tax truly would work, that it would raise enough money to operate the government with less strain on the tax-paying public. And he backs it up with all the facts and figures. He shows that the money that we would save each year just supporting accountants, tax preparers, and tax lawyers would represent billions of dollars in savings. And it would reel in the ever growing underground economy because even dope peddlers and gangsters have to consume every time they buy food, clothes, houses, cars or whatever. There is just no good reason not to try this.

This book describes a tax relief measure that is much needed in America. While the book is now a few years old and some of Mr. Armey's predictions for the passage of Flat Tax legislation have not come to fruition, the description and explanations regarding the Flat Tax is still pertinent and applicable. This book is intended for ordinary citizens who are burdened by the onslaught of taxes at the local, state, and federal level. It is not intended reading for an economist and contains little jargon. The book answers common questions regarding Mr. Armey's proposal. It also debunks and refutes arguments that have been made against the Flat Tax as well as showing why competing tax reform measures miss the mark. The Flat Tax is an idea who's time has come and Mr. Armey has done a superb job explaining why it is needed now and why it will work to send America's economic growth through the ceiling.

This was the first book I read that had been put out by the Heritage Foundation. I had been a big doubter of the flat tax, but Mitchells arguments and facts showed me that I was way wrong. He cogently argues that a flat tax is important for the economic well being of our country. HE also looks at other tax plans and shows their flaws and merits. For anyone interested in tax policy, this is a must-read!

Normally I pass by the business books on my way to the science books but this one caught my eye. I was skeptical but he convinced me.

It's a tax on consumption that is not flat like a sales tax. Every year you would fill out a form as you do now. Poor and many middle class people spend all they earn so they would end out much as now. Rich come in two types,
(1) those who luxuriate and (2) those who build businesses (and jobs!). They would come out very differently!

The idea is that you spend what you earn plus what you borrow minus what you save. Financial institutions would report borrowing and saving on forms like W-2 so you would compute your consumption from that plus earnings.

He wasn't very clear (anyway, I wasn't) about the example of buying a house. I believe on a $270,000 house you would be effectively spending $10,000/year for 27 years and this expenditure could be taxed at a progressive rate. There would be no capital gains taxes (because they are mostly inflation taxes).

Every American pays taxes in one form or another, but not many of us understand its broader social policy implications. I read this book and it gave me a working understanding of how the dry old tax system affects broader human behavior: How tax affects how each of us saves, spends and invests. Ultimately, the tax system is about what values we as a society want to promote. Here, McCaffery explains how the tax system is wrong-headed by encouraging spending and discouraging saving and challenges us to rethink age-old liberal assumption regarding taxing income, rather than consumption. While a consumption tax is not a new idea and McCaffery certainly is not the architect of it, McCaffery does a good job of synthesizing the literature on taxes and challenges us to rethink the values behind our current tax code.

Mr. McCaffery's analysis is superb. This is a must-read for anyone who thinks their income tax is too high or that the tax system is in desperate need of a major change (that's just about everybody- isn't it).

Even if you don't care a whit about the specific flat-tax proposals that prompted the publication of this book, it's still a very worthwhile introduction to taxes. There are some chapters of background on taxes, and they're a nice introduction to the subject. I read those chapters to get my feet wet for a tax law class, and it was extremely useful. It only took a few hours, and I'm not a speed reader.

For almost 150 years America thrived and expanded without an income tax.

Our problem now is that we have an income tax. Scott Hicko is discussing what? Another income tax!

The difference between our graduated income tax and a flat income tax is the difference between being tortured to death slowly versus being killed quickly with a shot to the head. I guess I'd take the shot, but I'd rather have a third option of keeping my life and living it freely.

You best bet right now is to use Amazon to gather as much about income taxation as you can. I highly recommend "Your Money Or Your Life" by Sheldon Richman and "Why Government Doesn't Work" by Harry Browne.

The enforcement of any income requires that the government pry into you private life. I want to end that, and enter the new millenium as a much more free country.

Hicko defense the current tax system of USA in a very cynical and rough way. The book takes you through in his myths based on the proposed new flat tax system by Alvin Rabushka, Dick Armey, Robert Hall, Robert Eisner and Herbert Stein. However, you will have moments during reading when you can laugh about his viewpoints of defense. Before you read the book, it might be better being at least a bit familiar with some other books, like: Robert Hall, Alvin Rabushka, The Flat Tax; and/or Dick Armey, The Flat Tax; and/or ISBN 0-8447-3987-1 Fairness and Efficiency in the Flat Tax. Just to mention some. Me personally, I would recommend to read the book of Scott E. Hicko, because it is always good to see opposite viewpoints as well, in order to evaluate more correctly. You do will have fun.

Scott Hicko's work to expose the lies and fraud of the widely discussed flat tax ideas coming from the Right is a breath of fresh air in the stifling and rancid air of Bush era politics. Even though it responds to Dick Armey's doomed plan of the mid-90's, you can be sure the Flat Tax debate will come roaring back as the Right, led by the Bush/Cheney/Rove triumvirate, continues its class war against the middle and lower classes.

Other reviewers have criticised this book. One reviewer mentions Alvin Rabushka's work on the flat tax system but Rabushka himself conceeded in his book that the flat tax would disproportionately burden the lower classes! The reviewers offer no substantiation that Hicko's book is factually incorrect. The author has 25 years of experience as a CPA and has done battle with the IRS for years. He knows the tax codes inside and out and he is adept at straightforward calculations about federal revenue. He makes very clear the case that the people with the money and power in this country are doing everything in their power to pass more and more of the burden to the lower and middle classes. It's not rocket science. It's math. The Right's usual approach when they try to shove this sort of tax concept down our throats is to cloak it in the classic language of "trickle-down," to convince us that all of these changes will lead to fantastic job growth and new prosperity for the country. Fat chance. We've seen plenty of what Republican economic initiative has done for this country in the last 20+ years. It's done a fantastic job enriching the top 1% of the people in the country, that's what it's done. All the while the middle class is going backwards over the last 30 years. Put another way, the middle and lower classes are heading down the toilet; we hardly need the final flush of a Flat Tax.

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