Issue Position: Taxes

Issue Position

I believe American families and small businesses are taxed too much. Furthermore, I believe the system through which we collect these taxes is overly burdensome, too complex, and fundamentally unfair in many respects. Consequently, I am an advocate of fundamental and comprehensive tax reform.

The two most prominent tax reform proposals are the Flat Tax and the Fair Tax. Both of these proposals represent a dramatic departure from the current system, and both of them would profoundly simplify the tax code of the United States.

According to The Heritage Foundation a Flat Tax "has a single rate, usually less than 20 percent. The low, flat rate solves the problem of high marginal tax rates by reducing penalties against productive behavior, such as work, risk taking, and entrepreneurship." The Flat Tax eliminates deductions, credits, exemptions, the death tax, the capital gains tax, and the tax on dividends. The only vestige of the current tax system it retains is an exemption based on family size, with most proposals allowing that a family of four, for example, would not begin to pay taxes until its annual income was at least $30,000.

The Fair Tax, on the other hand, would eliminate all taxes on income - including all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and, instead, collect taxes on the purchase of goods and services. Estimates on the actual rate of this national sales tax range from 23% to 30%. Like the Flat Tax, the Fair Tax also provides exemptions for lower income earners by eliminating or reimbursing all taxes levied on any family below the poverty line.

The American people deserve a tax system that they believe to be fair, that they can understand and comply with easily, and that increases American economic competitiveness around the globe. I have closely studied both of these proposals and have concluded that while they both greatly simplify the current system - and either one of them would be a dramatic improvement to the current system - my personal preference is for the Flat Tax. But regardless of ones preference for either of these two proposals, I strongly believe that Congress should consider both in a fair and open debate.

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