>>>>>http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2202020,00.html
>>>>>
>>>>>next person to moan about tax please let me know if taxation is actually making you poor.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Moaning about taxes is an American national pastime. I would venture to guess a high percentage of the moaners don't realize how low our income taxes are compared to those in other developed countries.
>>>
>>>Its a common thread here as well. I can see that complicated taxation is a pain and results in a lot of duplication of collection methods from different agencies. But at the end of the day a government provides a lot of services and a fee has to be paid.
>>
>>This is exactly why I believe in the idea of a flat tax based on gross income. Your income is higher, you pay more tax. No loopholes to find, no shelters to hide under.
>
>Unfortunately the very wealthy will always find ways to hide income but I agree that one simple flat tax would be easier. But perhaps it should be on sales not income. So if you spend a lot you pay a lot of tax. Make necessities (food etc) zero rated.

Yes, sales is another way to go, although I think it would be very difficult to hide any of a person's (or corporation's) gross income.

The one problem with putting it on sales, I think, would be that it might lead to even greater indebtedness as people borrow a lot of tax money on top of borrowing the actual cost of larger items. It might even put home buying out of reach for some people. A flat tax on sales would have to be reasonably high to generate enough income to run the country.