Well, certainly a “flat tax” could be “progressive” in effect by making the “base amount” fairly large & untaxed. Thus, if Jonorato’s theory simply had everyone taxed at 20% over the untaxed base of $24000, then it would be “flat”, and in effect, “progressive”- even with only one “bracket”. Altho, technically there are two brackets- 0% & 20%. However, I have seen no serious “flat tax” plans that would tax every single dollar at that rate- all have had some sort of 0% base. Thus, all serios “falt tax” plans are progressive to some extant- or if we accept Tracer’s definition- there have been NO serious “flat tax” plans ever submitted. No one is going to submit a tax plan where Granny’s $6000 of Social security is going to be taxed at the same rate (or at all) as Bill Gates or similar billionaire dudes.
Next- one of the problems with a Flat Tax is that there are many families that can only afford the home they live in now by deducting the Mortgage interest & taxes. They would be forced to sell out & move with a flat tax plan. No-one is in favor of that, AFAIK.
Of course, the big problem with any “flat tax” is that the guys who write the Tax codes are not going to write one that makes them pay more taxes. You dudes do remember that Billionaire Candidate who was in favor of a “flat tax”- except that stuff like Capital gains would not be taxed at all. Completely bogus. Most “flat tax” plans end up with the rich dudes paying LESS taxes- thus, in order to make the plan “revenue neutral”, us dudes in the middle MUST pay MORE Taxes. On a simple “pay 20%” plan, I would have paid nearly $3000 more taxes. Sure, on Jon’s plan, I would have paid less- but is that plan “revenue neutral”? If your plan is not “revenue neutral”, you are simply talking to hear yourself.
Speaking of “talking to hear yourself”- we get into the rather specious plans of a "national sales tax. At least Nutmagnet uses a proper amount- 20%, instead of the completely spurious 10% talked about so often by ignorant self-proclaimed “pundits”. The Treasury did figure out it would require something like 17>20%. However, it won’t work, hasn’t worked, and is not even worth considering. You have to add in STATE Sales taxes, too. That puts the burden at nearly 30%. Once sales tax gets over 15% or so- then tax avoidance becomes a major problem- requiring even higher rates. At nearly 30%, the tax avoidance problem is so huge as to be insurmountable- most of us would be buying everything we could from the Swap meet or the black market. Name me a major industrialized nation that gets all of its income from a Sales tax. There are none. Hmm, maybe that means that dudes who really know this shit know it won’t work?
And then remember this- any such "flat tax’ would only replace the FEDERAL INCOME TAX. Not FICA, FUTA, Medicare, State Income tax, etc. These often add up to an amount equal to your FIT. (or more, if one figures in “employer contributions”)
Jonorata- sec280 does not apply just to dudes who rent out a room or their house at “Augusta”. It applys to everyone who rents out their home (or a room in it) for a breif period. Note, that altho the “income” is tax free, the dude can’t claim any of the rental deductions, either. It is there to simplify the tax code, by allowing dudes who breifely rent out a room, or their hous during a vacation- to not have to worry about figuring depreciation, etc on their home.