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Every time I hear of this issue, I keep thinking back to a story I heard about Russia a while back. How a couple years ago, with an incredibly onerous tax code, the Russian treasury was almost depleted. So they instituted a 13% Flat Tax. And surprisingly enough, the money began pouring in (Forgot specifics, though. Anyone remember the story, and got a link with info on this?).

What people like Arianna Huffington don't understand (And which Arnold Schwarzenegger does, since he pointed it out in the California debate), is that if you start taxing people to high, they don't just sit there and take it. They LEAVE. They go somewhere else where the taxes aren't so onerous. People complain all the time about how all these corporations having tax shelters in Haiti or wherever, yet NO ONE bothers to ask why these companies felt the need to set up their corporate headquarters outside of the US borders.

Well, there's my personal rant. Whatever the case, I completely with you about the National Retail Sales Tax. I'd love to bury the IRS for good, and get rid of the Income Tax, altogether.

I agree with your points, except one: Arianna Huffington is having no problem with the current tax code it seems, she is writing off her entire life, somehow. Why the IRS isn't raking her over the coals, I do not know.

The corporate issue is something a bit different. Corporations that make profits in the US but then seek offshore tax havens are basically dishonest. They want the markets and the protections of the US system, they make profits, but then try to run and hide when the taxman comes.

Excerpt from "Russia's Flat Tax Miracle" at Heritage.org

The Russian flat tax has been so successful that even American politicians might learn the right lessons. Let’s look at the evidence: Russia’s economy has expanded by about 10 percent since it adopted a flat tax. That may not be spectacular, but it’s better than the United States, and it’s very impressive compared to the anemic growth rates we see elsewhere in Europe.
It also appears, conventional wisdom aside, that a low tax rate doesn’t mean less money for government. Over the last two years, inflation-adjusted income tax revenue in Russia has grown 50 percent. Why? Because people are willing to produce more and pay their taxes when the system if fair and tax rates are low -- exactly what Ronald Reagan predicted when he triggered America’s economic boom with lower tax rates 20 years ago. Ironically, the former communists in Moscow now understand supply-side economics, yet liberals in Congress are still relying on the politics of hate-and-envy.
Interestingly, the flat tax is just one of several positive reforms enacted by President Putin. Russia also has reduced the corporate rate of tax from 35 percent to 24 percent. (U.S.-based companies still pay 35 percent, the second-highest corporate tax among industrialized nations). Small businesses also get better treatment. The old system with high tax rates has been replaced by a new system where companies can choose either a 6 percent tax on gross revenue or a 15 percent tax on profits.