(1) Should we have a flat tax? Why or why not?
Basically, right now the income tax we pay is fluctuated based on the amount of income we make from our employers. If we were to switch to a flat tax, the amount of income tax we would pay would be even across the board for both millionaires and blue collar workers, for example. Some like to compare this method to a tithe or offering at church, which is often recommended to be 10% of one's income regardless of how much money you make.
Initially it sounds fair, because all citizens are paying the same tax percentage. However, think about it like this. Let us say the tax rate is 10%. Citizen "A" who makes $1,000,000 pays $100,000 in taxes and citizen "B" who makes $25,000 pays $2,500 in taxes. Just looking amount of money they are contributing to the tax system, is that fair? Lastly, a major role player in this type of reform is investing (Erb, 2015).
If a person receives their income primarily based on investment return, and they are making booku bucks, it doesn't count toward the income tax because a flat tax is based on your wages from your job. So, to conclude my thought, no, we should not switch to a flat tax system. I just feel that our country is always going to have some sort of debt, so why punish all the citizens and make them pay a flat tax to decrease the overall debt?
(2) What are the merits and risks of other tax-based reforms? Please assess at least one additional reform. Examples include, but are not limited to: a national sales tax, value added taxes (VAT), eliminating a variety of deductions or credits.
In 2003, the "Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act" (JGTRRA) was put into action by the Bush administration, piggybacking off of the Economic Growth and Tax Reconciliation Act of 2001 (Rushefsky, 2014). It accelerated things such as the child tax credit, marriage penalty tax credit, and the 10% tax bracket and aimed to end the 2001 Recession (Rushefsky, 2014).
By the end of 2004, the economy had grown 3.8% which is higher than the desired annual average. JGTRRA was a great concept for businesses. They got tax breaks, so more workers were hired, which meant more income overall for the economy (Amadeo, 2016).
Reference:
Amadeo, K. (2016). Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (2003). Web. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/jobs-and-growth-tax-relief-reconciliation-act-2003-3305769
Erb, K. (2015). Our Current Tax v. The Flat Tax v. The Fair Tax: What's The Difference? Forbes Magazine. Web. Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2015/08/07/our-current-tax-v-the-flat-tax-v-the-fair-tax-whats-the-difference/#6a74d9171fa6