GOP’s Rand Paul Calls For 14.5% Flat Tax

[DEAD7]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/gops-rand-paul-calls-14-5-flat-tax-1434587746

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/06/17/rand-paul-to-detail-flat-tax-plan/?_r=0

Sen. Rand Paul is pledging to “blow up the tax code and start over” with a federal flat tax of 14.5%, as he seeks to boost his support among conservatives in the Republican presidential field.

Tax plans increasingly have become a defining issue for Republicans in the 2016 nomination fight, and Mr. Paul’s proposal represents one of the more detailed—and aggressive—so far.

Mr. Paul said his plan, laid out on The Wall Street Journal’s opinion pages, would reduce the government’s tax take by over $2 trillion over 10 years, or at least 5%, based on congressional revenue estimates for 2016 to 2025. It would require substantial spending cuts to avoid adding to deficits—an amount roughly equal to all deficit reduction the federal government has done since 2010.

He predicted his plan would boost economic growth by nearly a percentage point a year.

The plan would eliminate payroll taxes on workers, as well as gift and estate taxes and all duties and tariffs. His flat tax would apply to all personal income, including wages, salaries, dividends, capital gains, rents and interest. It would exempt the first $50,000 of income for a family of four.

 

[DEAD7]

Making poor families exempt from income tax While aiding the job creators.

 

[Domingo Halliburton]

I am fully with him in eliminating the payroll tax you could help out a lot of lower income people right there. I don't give a shyt what it pays for you can find it from other sources.

edit: Now that I look at it, it goes a lot to social security and Medicare. Still, its one of the most regressive taxes we have.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

i can get behind this

 

[Broke Wave]

i can get behind this

Sarcasm?

 

[acri1]

I agree with cutting/getting rid of payroll taxes.

Flat tax tho


That's basically a handout to huge corporations who won't end up paying it because they have armies of tax lawyers to find loopholes while the guy making 20k a year is gonna be hurting.

Glad that would never happen in the real world.

 

[NkrumahWasRight Is Wrong]

payroll and estate taxes

 

[DEAD7]

I agree with cutting/getting rid of payroll taxes.

Flat tax tho


That's basically a handout to huge corporations who won't end up paying it because they have armies of tax lawyers to find loopholes while the guy making 20k a year is gonna be hurting.

Glad that would never happen in the real world.

People below 50k would be exempt...


More importantly, would you support it if the loopholes were closed?

 

[acri1]

People below 50k would be exempt...


More importantly, would you support it if the loopholes were closed?

If people/businesses making below 50k are exempt and loopholes were legitimately closed then I can give the idea some legitimate consideration.

Though I doubt that's realistic.

 

[Prince.Skeletor]

This is HUGE



Who can argue against this?

 

[Domingo Halliburton]

This is HUGE


Who can argue against this?

I mean regardless of the exemption you're raising taxes on lower income and lowering them for the rich

 

[88m3]

I mean regardless of the exemption you're raising taxes on lower income and lowering them for the rich

That's the beauty in it.

 

[Urban2100]

Though I doubt that's realistic.

Why do you doubt it's realistic?

Who can argue against this?

The only issue I see is what cuts are gonna make up the 5% loss in tax revenue?

Also what is he gonna do with Obamacare? Since its essentially a tax.

 

[88m3]

Why do you doubt it's realistic?



The only issue I see is what cuts are gonna make up the 5% loss in tax revenue?

Also what is he gonna do with Obamacare? Since its essentially a tax.

I'm sure they haven't looked that far ahead look at the debt load in red states where they slashed taxes.

 

[acri1]

Why do you doubt it's realistic?

Because there are literally armies of tax lobbyists whose entire job it is to try to get tax breaks for big corporations and the wealthy. A flat tax is not going to stop or deter them from lobbying (and getting) exemptions and loopholes.


https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/po...alls-reform/omgZvDPa37DNlSqi0G95YK/story.html

By investing just $1.8 million over two years in payments for Washington lobbyists, Whirlpool secured the renewal of lucrative energy tax credits for making high-efficiency appliances that it estimates will be worth a combined $120 million for 2012 and 2013. Such breaks have helped the company keep its total tax expenses below zero in recent years.

The return on that lobbying investment: about 6,700 percent.

These are the sort of returns that have attracted growing swarms of corporate tax lobbyists to the Capitol over the last decade — the sorts of payoffs typically reserved for gamblers and gold miners. Even as Congress says it is digging for every penny of savings, lobbyists are anything but sequestered; they are ratcheting up their efforts to protect and even increase their clients’ tax breaks.

The Senate approved tax benefits for Whirlpool and a host of other corporations early on New Year’s Day, a couple of hours after the ball dropped over Times Square and champagne corks began popping. A smorgasbord of 43 business and energy tax breaks, collectively worth $67 billion this year, was packed into the emergency tax legislation that avoided the so-called “fiscal cliff.’’

A flat tax is not going to stop this type of thing, regardless of tax rates big business will lobby for lower taxes. I'd imagine the ultimate result would just be budget problems and more deficit spending.