Why Don’t We Eliminate The Charitable And Mortgage Interest Deductions?
The only two things I will eliminate are the charitable contribution and the mortgage interest deduction. The reason I picked them is because in most, if not all, of the Republican plans, those are the only two itemized deductions that are kept. Frankly if you blew those away, I think you would end up with a lot of non-itemizers, except in the high tax states, but let the chips fall where they may.
Santorum 20/20 Flat Tax Might Be Hard On Many Small Businesses
A progressive rate table may be a good or bad idea, but it is really not that complicated. Even if you are doing a return by hand figuring out the tax on a progressive table once you have gotten to taxable income could be turned over to a bright fourth grader. Boiling the 29 line Schedule A down to 2 lines might seem like a massive reduction in complexity, but all the various Code Sections that address potentially abusive transaction will need to stay in some form or other and you will still need special provisions for insurance companies and financial institutions. So the page count will not come down all that much, but the page count is not a real problem, since nobody is affected by all the pages and regular people only have to worry about a few of them
Follow Me
Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.