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The Economic Effects of A Flat Tax
Why the Flat Tax Is Efficient
Why the Flat Tax Is Efficient
Because there is only one tax rate, because the only exemption is a personal allowance and because all income is taxed only once, the flat tax removes distortions of the current tax system that prevent resources from being allocated to their highest valued use.
Uniform Taxation of Capital Inputs. Under the current tax system, the different marginal tax rates and varying tax treatments cause capital and other inputs to be taxed differently from industry to industry, as Table I shows. Thus, for example, although the average effective tax rate on capital for the overall U. S. economy is 36.4 percent:
- The average rate on capital for the processed food and tobacco production
sector is 46 percent, but the rate for tax-subsidized agricultural crops
is only 26 percent.
- Manufacturers pay an average rate of 40 percent, but the services sector (other than financial services) pays an average rate of 32 percent.
Removing Exemptions, Deductions and Loopholes. As Figure I shows, more than half of all personal income is not taxed under the current system. Under the proposed flat tax reform, except for a personal allowance all income is taxed, but taxed only once, at its source and at one rate. There are no other exemptions, no deductions, no loopholes.
Removing the Anti-Savings Bias. Under our current tax system, people are taxed on what they earn and save, taxed again when the savings earn a return and taxed yet again when they die. Thus the system as it exists is biased against saving and toward consumption, although Congress has passed some special provisions to encourage saving (tax-free retirement accounts, for example). This multiple taxing of investment income has hampered economic growth by causing the United States to have a lower capital stock than it otherwise would have. Under the flat tax, earnings from saved income are not taxed at the individual level. Investment in real capital assets is expensed at the time it is made, rather than being depreciated. Thus the flat tax is pro-saving and pro-investment.