Kill the Tax Monster

It’s all very well for Paul Greeberg to call for the end of the current federal income tax system.  No doubt he’s right that

For the average American family, filling out a tax form has become like attacking a puzzle to which, often enough, there is no right answer. But we’re all supposed to swear, on penalty of perjury, that we’ve done our best to find it.

But are people really as upset as he thinks?  First of all, only about half the American people actually pay income tax.  Rush Limbaugh has a permanent feature, Truth About Taxes, on his web site that trumpets the fact that 50 percent of the taxpayers pay 96.7 percent of the federal income tax. 

Then people like “beating the system” with the home mortgage deduction and the various tax credits.  It’s like weekly supermarket specials.  Supermarkets could just keep their prices low.  But instead they advertise loss leaders every week—and that means that other prices must go up to balance the loss leaders.  Why do they do it?  Women like the fun and excitement of hunting for bargains and clipping coupons.

Still, the federal income tax is enormously wasteful and complicated.  For the sake of national hygiene we should replace it.

Greenberg wants to replace the current income tax with a flat tax.  He’s right.  The president’s budget for 2008 anticipates income tax collections of $1.246 trillion.  That’s about 9 percent of GDP.  For that we need a complicated schedile of tax rates going up to nearly 40 percent and a forest of deductions, credits and allowances?

Come on.  America can do better.