skullaria wrote:
] flynn23 wrote:
] ] ] At the moment, homeowners can deduct interest they pay on
] ] ] their mortgages from their income taxes. Without an
] ] ] income tax, this subsidy, long seen as part of what made
] ] ] the American dream come true, would disappear. Bringing
] ] ] it back, perhaps through direct grants, would require
] ] ] raising the national sales tax rate to 21 percent.
] ]
] ] a great analysis on why flat taxes, whether income or sales,
]
] ] would not work very well.
]
] Were the situation reversed, and a national sales tax were in
] effect and we were looking at moving instead to a national
] income tax, the public would be going NO WAY if average middle
] class wage earner learned that their appr. first 129 days of
] each year would be spent working just to pay their income tax.

Either way you slice it, there's no incentive to switch. While I'm all for dumping the IRS and dismantling the multi-billion dollar tax 'services' industry, it appears that the numbers just don't add up. Any major overhaul to the system would cause a reverberation that could wipe out the middle class in one fell swoop.

RE: Economic View: What if a Sales Tax Were the Only Tax?