If there’s anything I can do to help Stormy…I’m in

With the flat tax model, taxes are only charged on what you purchase, not on what you earn. In the most cited example, a national “flat tax” would be applied to all purchases made any where in the United States and its possessions.

It works like this: all purchases of groceries (excluding fresh produce, meat and dairy items), cars, gasoline, utilities, clothing, accessories, makeup, prescriptions, tobacco, alcohol, fishing poles and etc, would be charged a 3-5% tax that would be collected and sent directly to the US Government.

People that live in states that already charge a “state sales tax” are familiar with the concept, it is just another sales tax, yet this time it goes to the US, not the individual state.

The theory is that those that make more spend more, and those that make less buy less. The flat tax would even out who is paying what, without everyone being charged on each penny that they earn. It also spreads individual’s tax payments out over an entire year, without the official withholding and filing that we all deal with now.

Obviously, the same system will also work for businesses. An oil refinery will spend more on utilities and supplies than a florist shop, and the oil refinery will likely make the larger profit on what they sell. In most cases, this would help businesses to stay afloat, while giving the government more tax revenue than under the old “write off” system.

Imagine what a direct effect this would have on decreasing the amount of money spent on employees to keep the IRS running alone? Not to mention that those that are self employed would not have the annoyance of the social security tax and a lot of the other taxes that get foisted off on them, so it is feasible that more small business growth would create more jobs.

It may also serve as a deterrent to those that consistently live far beyond their means, might encourage more people to save their money because they would no longer be taxed on any interest earned, and the US would have tax revenue coming in all year long, not just in quarterly bursts, making it easier to plan for budgets and deal with fiscal emergencies.

However, as South said, it is imperative that the 16th Amendment be abolished before any of this could take place. We could do without most of the “amendments” to the Constitution in all truth.