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The Rising Tide of Flat Tax

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  • 23-08-2008 12:03am
    #1
    Frankie Lee
    Registered Users Posts: 3,285 ✭✭✭


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_tax

    With an ever increasing amount of eastern EU countries employing this system, what are peoples views on the social, political and economical impacts that will inevitably result.


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    #2
    Time Magazine
    Registered Users Posts: 8,452 ✭✭✭Time Magazine


    I know quite a bit about this topic. Politically, it's not going to happen.

    Wouldn't be implemented here. We can have a flat tax with our two standard bands by simply setting the higher rate equal to the lower rate anyway.

    And it's not as stupid an idea as people think.


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    #3
    Overheal
    Registered Users Posts: 83,258 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    I fail to grasp the argument against the flat tax.


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    #4
    Frankie Lee
    Registered Users Posts: 3,285 ✭✭✭Frankie Lee


    Not being progreesive is my beef with it.


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    #5
    Kama
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,027 ✭✭✭Kama


    Yeh its about as progressive as VAT, but you could tweak it. All depends on how its implemented, I guess. Large intuitive appeal, which goes a long way.
    Be interesting to see the results in practice.


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    #6
    Time Magazine
    Registered Users Posts: 8,452 ✭✭✭Time Magazine


    Overheal wrote: »
    I fail to grasp the argument against the flat tax.

    Ideally we shouldn't tax good things like productivity and labour, but bad things like congestion and pollution. Similarly we should tax "extreme congestion" (peak traffic) more than driving through Dublin city at 2am.

    By the same logic we shouldn't tax "extreme productivity" higher than "moderate productivity". This similarly applies to labour.

    The efficiency element of taxation should be focused on collection. The equity argument applies primarily to expenditure.


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