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Comment by ratsmack | Hacker News Reader

More importantly, remove all of the many loopholes that are used by the very wealthy to prevent themselves from paying tax at all. I would greatly be in favor of a flat tax for everyone earning $30K and above.

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That massively massively penalizes people who are more poor or middle class vs someone that has millions or billions. 30% of a million is 333k, but 30% of 31k is 10.3k. I imagine losing that 10.3k hurts the 30k person far more than losing the 333k does to the person who is now making 667k.

Why would you want a flat tax for everyone above 30k?

It depends on what rate is chosen. I've read that an 8% tax applied this way would reap more tax than the current system. My personal effective federal tax rate has always been between 17-20% on an income of about $100K/yr.

The $30K I noted is arbitrary and only chosen because that is the approximate poverty line currently.

Just so you know the poverty line is $12k-$15k for single people and $25k-$31k for a family of 4.

In the us that's going to effect the middle class more - but maybe moving to a position where most people are on PAYE makes sense longer term.

I disagree, the middle class has slowly been squeezed out of most of their tax exemptions, the ones that remain are regressive and provide more tax relief to the wealthy. It's complex enough that it's probably best to wipe the slate clean and start over.

Or... you tax people that are rich more and it seems to solve your problem. Wiping the slate clean and starting tax law from scratch is not going to happen. It would cripple the economy and would affect every business and many people.

You have a point, it would be disruptive. I believe it's the right move for the long term but there may be a better way to approach introducing it - suddenly cutting out any deductions for charitable giving would likely bankrupt those charities before government subsidization or non-tax deductible giving could pick up the slack, for instance.

Agreed, it would have to be phased in/out over time in a very smart way to not crush businesses and accountants. Doable perhaps over a long span of time if everyone agrees to it but man would it be a longshot. I'd imagine it would still have devastating second and third order consequences that aren't apparent until it's too late.

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