George W's tax cuts lead to increases in Gov revenues, I believe they even set the then revenue record.

Under Bill Clinton, the capital gains tax was cut from 28% to 20% and tax revenue increased significantly.

In a 2008 debate between Obama and Hillary, the moderator cited that and asked Obama if he would maintain his policy to raise the capital gains tax, even if it meant less revenue.

Obama said, yes, he would raise that tax, if only in the interest of "fairness". :pound:

You are seriously going to quote this piece of trash article?

WaPo has become an absolute disgrace.

What in your view would result in tax reform? What specifically needs to be reformed?

Not only was I seriously going to, I seriously did! :ThmbUp:

It isn't just good enough to drastically cut taxes for the Low to Middle Class, you also have to penalize the Upper Class according to Dimwhit logic.

Every business who takes a huge loss this year is currently eligible going forward in years to come to to offset that loss right? We are all familiar with that one because of our President right? The point is all of these deductions are OK because they support the system right? A new system of the flat tax probably would not include many of the old systems deductions, but with the flat system everybody pays. This is not where we are going, but I think what will be is something that will provide the middle class some relief. In the end down the the road the flat tax will be more appealing after this transition. In my opinion we are going to make a few stops along the way. Anything that provides relief to the middle class is just fine, but cuts in service is mandatory. This mindset of thinking we can have both is not only uneducated but also very corrosive. Consider this, 30 Trillion in national debt will bring war the likes of which the world has never seen. If you have kids and grandchildren wrap your head around that reality.

Not sure I can agree with ANY of that.

The "Tax Plan' on board has been long debated. Flat Tax everybody, with essentially no exceptions.

Everybody gets a tax break. How anybody is bitching is laughable. Middle class get at least an 8 to 13% break.

The real question at hand is whether it can really happen.

Serious question. How does the flat tax work? I don't think there is even a consensus on what the flat tax is.

More serious question, how does the current tax system work?

Do you even know what tax bracket you are in, or do you just accept what is as what is?

A "flat" tax is just that. You make X amount of money, you'll be taxed at X rate. Nothing more, nothing less. For the vast majority of Americans that have a job, family, etc. that means 25%. I guarantee that is 10% less than you paid last year.

Ok, I own an apartment building as my only source of income, how do I determine how much I pay tax on? Can I write off depreciation, repairs, loan interest, property taxes, etc?

There is really not many brackets now, so having one bracket doesn't really bring a lot of simplification .

A flat tax rate, in my view, is by far the fairest way to tax but it would mean a huge tax cut for the rich and a huge tax increase for the people currently paying no income tax. Not a combination likely to win approval from congress or the public.

What do you pay for taxes now?

Businesses, even small, get a 15% tax rate. If it is just you, you go from 39% to 35% at the worst.

Either way, you'll get a massive tax break. By the way, I'm available for hire.

My wife and I reported a 6 figure retirement income in 2016 and our overall federal tax rate was just under 14%. California added another 3.75%.

I can't imagine that there is a single American who paid an overall tax rate of 35% much less the majority as you suggest. Maybe on the last dollars earned but certainly not on every dollar.

I think you might misunderstand the current progressive tax structure where you pay no taxes on the the first dollars earned and then higher rates as you earn more.

A flat tax where you pay the same rate on a $8000 yearly income as you do on $8,000,000 would be devastating to the majority of Americans which is why it has never gotten any traction outside of Steve Forbes.

I'm as middle class as you can get. During Bush's tax cut, you know the one the leftists said only helped the rich, I had to pay $1800 less in taxes. Hard to beat that. Under the new Trump plan, at least what's been talked about so far, the doubling of the standard deduction will net me about $2200 in tax savings. That's pretty sweet for this middle class guy lol