What are the Benefits of a Single-Rate Tax System?
Regardless of which option is chosen, both the flat tax and sales tax would yield immense benefits for Americans. Specifically, these benefits would include: • Fairness. Most Americans believe the tax code is riddled with discrimination. They are right. The government either imposes tax penalties or grants tax preferences depending on the source, use, or level of income. All of these special provisions violate the principle that all citizens should be treated equally by the law. The flat tax and a sales tax would restore fairness in the system by ensuring that all taxpayers, all income, and all products are treated the same.9 • Economic growth. Both the flat tax and a sales tax would minimize the tax rate imposed on productive behavior and eliminate the myriad forms of double taxation in the current code. Consequently, either one would boost the economy’s potential growth rate and cause permanent increases in economic output. How much the economy would benefit is not easy to predict, b
