In a new op/ed, 2016 GOP Presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson is calling for a flat tax. In Carson’s system, everyone pays at least something, giving all Americans some “skin in the game,” Carson says.
According to Carson in the Daily Caller:
“America’s incomprehensible web of tax laws and regulations is an abomination. No one can justify the complexity of the tax code, or the 75,000 pages it fills. Last year, Americans wasted more than $230 billion and spent 6 billion hours just to prepare our taxes. The myriad special-interest tax shelters and loopholes disproportionately benefit some citizens over others and encourage those with the resources to openly game the system.
We need to replace our tax code with a straightforward alternative based on simplicity, transparency and fairness. The solution is a clean, low flat tax.
A single-rate system levels the playing field and eases the burdens of compliance. It eliminates the labyrinth of deductions and preferences, as well as the inequities of increasingly punitive tax rates as taxpayers earn more money. Under the current system, the harder someone works to achieve the American Dream, the more heavily she is taxed. Under my flat tax, these disincentives for success will be removed and everyone will be treated fairly.
Here’s how: my plan calls for a simple 14.9 percent flat tax on all income. No deductions, no shelters, no loopholes. If you earn ten times as much as your neighbor, you pay ten times as much in taxes. That’s the deal.
To treat everyone in America as citizen-owners, those whose income falls below this allowance will make a de minimis tax payment annually. Even Americans who earn little income should pay some taxes, no matter how small their contribution might be. Instead of living under a system where proposed tax hikes affect only a few, we must create a tax base that includes everyone.”
