Once again, the details matter. I have been advocating for what could be called a flat tax but is functionally progressive taxation. Here’s my (rough) proposal:
12% income tax ON ALL INCOME regardless of source. This includes dividends & capital gains.
Every adult citizen gets a standard $10k deduction
The 1st child gets a $5k deduction, 2nd = $4k, 3rd = $2.5k, 4th =$1.5k zero thereafter
This would mean that a family of 4 would pay no income tax if they made less than $29k/yr
The same family making $60k would pay 12% of $31k or $3,720 (effective rate 6.2%)
The same family making $100k would pay 12% of $71k or $8,520 (effective rate 8.52%)
Based on a gross national income (2022) of $25 trillion (adjusted to ~$23 trillion after deductions for 287 million adults & 73 million children {I counted each child as $4k for ease of computation}) & income tax revenue (2022) of $2.6 trillion a 12% flat tax as I describe would shift the tax burden to those who are currently not paying their fair share & produce a tax break for the lower & middle income tax brackets while producing comparable revenue to what the government currently collects.
This would effectively give a significant amount of additional money to people making less than $100k per year who would mostly go out & spend it. Thereby boosting the economy & making everybody richer.
We would still need the IRS as somebody in the government has to collect the receipts. However, their job would be much simpler as it would be for people filing their own taxes (post card should be about right). The only ones to lose out are the personal accountants. They can still do business taxes.