The Flat Tax in America.

Other countries have implemented a flat tax and have had success. They are not the only ones because not only have we had a flat tax in the past, but presidential hopefuls Steve Forbes and Jerry Brown have advocated one.

Matt Cherry wrote an article on CNN, titled “America’s History With the Flat Tax”, which is a news website that can give information to people about taxes, the economy, and events in the world.

Source: penniesfromstones

“The country's first experiment with a flat tax came in 1861. The nation was mired in civil war, and President Abraham Lincoln's administration had to find a way to help raise money to wage the conflict.”

My opinion on this statement is that it is a good example of a reason we could use the flat tax. The flat tax is probably going to make the biggest dent in the economy during war time periods such as the Civil War. Lincoln implemented this tax in order to pay for defense and army supplies, as well as for the increasing price on tariffs. I believe this would work during war time because that is when we would need the money the most. As we start to get more involved in the war on terror, we will need more money to supply our soldiers and our allies against the terrorists. We could use the flat tax to implement a fair tax percentage from everyone and then use that money to research into new war materials and to fund the expensive war items like the stealth bombers. The flat tax would not only make the tax system fair, but it also helps defend the country in which we live.

  “The income tax was seen as a way of giving Congress a way to lower the tariff rates. In 1894, it enacted the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act. This included another flat-rate tax - 2% on incomes above $4,000.”

In my opinion the flat tax in this situation would allow more goods to be bought and transported to America. The problem was that the tax imposed on imported goods and services was so high that Congress used the flat tax to try and eliminate this problem. By implementing the flat tax, it allowed the government to tax the people at a low enough percentage where they would not get angry, but they could still pay off the high tariff rates. This could work today in the U.S. because we are very deep in debt to other countries. If we implemented a flat tax then we could pay off that debt much quicker and have more money to spend on things like defense and education. Once our debts are paid off, then the percent taken could be set a little lower, allowing a small percentage of tax to be taken from the people and therefore make them happy.

How much debt is the U.S. in?

Are there any more presidential candidates in favor of the flat tax?