Flat Tax | Teen Ink

Flat Tax

March 7, 2017
By tim_walsh83 SILVER, Park Rapids, Minnesota
tim_walsh83 SILVER, Park Rapids, Minnesota
5 articles 0 photos 0 comments

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Taxpayers are good for the economy. Wealthy people are taxpayers. Therefore wealthy people are good for the economy. People like to think the rich are evil, that they didn’t earn their money and they don’t deserve it. According to Brad Klontz “Rich people are greedy and shallow” (Mendoza-Denton). So the right thing to do is punish the wealthy with a higher tax rate, right? “To keep taxes fair there have been proposals to substitute a flat tax on income for the current graduated tax, which taxes higher incomes at a higher rate. Proponents argue that the flat tax is fair and simple. Opponents view it as a bonanza for the wealthy. Flat tax is a single tax rate that applies to everyone obligated to pay the tax” (Flat Tax). The top earning one percent of American taxpayers pay just about half of the total federal income tax. The bottom 80 percent of American taxpayers pay roughly 15 percent of all federal income tax (Frank). This shows how important the wealthier people are to our economy.

 

One percent of Americans pay for almost have the federal income. They earned their way to get to the top one percent. Why punish them for earning more than somebody else? That's demoting capitalism and promoting socialism. Rand Paul suggested our country has a 14.5 percent federal tax rate (Lundeen). If the tax rate is the same for everyone, people would work harder because they know they won’t be punished with a higher tax rate.
Wealthier people tend to have more expenses than poorer people. Mainly due to the fact that more wealthy people own businesses. They deduct expenses off of their income and get less of their income taxed. It’s legal and ethical but a flat tax can “get rid of loopholes and deductions” (Flat tax). It’s fair for everyone.


Some people don’t care for the flat tax because they think it impacts taxpayers disproportionately. A person making 1,000,000 dollars a year that was taxed 10% would give 100,000 dollars in taxes to the government. A person making 10,000 dollars a year that was taxed 10 percent would give 1,000 dollars in tax to the government. The cost of living does not change as the income changes. The cost of food and fuel doesn’t change for the poor (Phillips). Taxing the rich at a higher percentage does not bring down the price of living for poor people.


If you make over 400,000 dollars, your federal income tax rate is 39.6 percent. If they drop their rates from 39.6 percent to the income bracket of 9,000 dollars to 37,000 dollars which is 15 percent. It puts more money in their pocket. The government would end up with most of their money they gave back but the money would touch more people before getting there. Which would boost our economy (Cool).


I think a flat tax is the best solution to fix how our income tax is now. With everybody at the same tax rate, it is a less confusing tax bracket since everyone has the same tax rate. The wealthier people still pay their fair share without getting ripped off into paying a higher tax rate just because they make more. It encourages individuals to work harder because they know they won’t be punished with a higher tax rate. With the pros and cons of flat tax that I have listed. I hope you have learned enough about the flat tax rate to get America to move to the flat tax rate.


The author's comments:

I wrote this paper because I belive our tax plan should be flat.


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