Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for lowering tax rates and even making the tax rates less progressive or flatter. I think the “flat rate” should be lower than 10%. I don’t mind having some level of exemptions and/or deductions to reduce the base. For a family of four, perhaps the exemption/deduction combo would mean that the flat rate applies to income above $48,000 or so. As with anything the difficulty is in the details. What income are you talking about? Just wages? Wages and interest earned? Wages and interest and dividend income? Wages and interest and dividend income and capital gains? What about rental income? Do you treat that differently, and if so what “deductions” do you allow for expenses of maintaining the rental property?
The tax rate should be low and the base very wide. Tax all forms of income and wages and capital gains, with capital gains tied to the rate of inflation.