I agree that would be the fairest system, but the half of the country that currently pays nothing will whine that they have to contribute to running the country.
If a couple had $100,000 in income and the flat rate was 15% they’d pay $15,000 in tax. If one passed away and the income was still $100k the surviving spouse would still pay $15k and had $85,000 left like before.
I’d like to add to the above that required minimum distributions from retirement account are taxed as ordinary income. Since I inherited my husband’s retirement accounts in addition to
the ones I previously owned, how much I have to withdraw are the same as when he was alive. However I am now paying more income tax on them because I was forced into the higher tax for filing as a single person instead of filing jointly when my husband was alive
It’s not quite that simple. They’re getting taxed plenty through inflation, and disproportionately so because their basic needs account for a huge percentage of their income relative to someone making $200K+.
That inflation is largely caused by excessive government spending, which is and always has been the biggest problem by far.
How would you define taxable income? How about capital gains and reinvested income?
If it was solely a consumptive tax, someone with a $40k annual income would probably have a tax rate of 20% to 50% while someone with a $500k income would likely pay less than 2%.
It would make the gap between rich and poor much worse than it is today.
Money received that was earned, interest, dividends, capital gains from anything other than your primary residence, gambling winnings, etc. Gifts, insurance settlements and a few other things would be exempt.
It would depend what was taxed and how much. Basic necessities could be taxed at a few percent and things like fast food, TVs, clothing, travel etc would be taxed higher.
An example is with a 10% tax on clothing a $3 pair of socks from Walmart would have a $.30 tax and a $20 pair of Darn Tough socks would have a tax of $2. People could choose to pay less tax on a less expensive product. The same with food, basic items like fresh fruit, veggies, beans, rice, etc could have low or no tax. Fast food and other processed foods a 25% tax.
In 2024 the total individual income tax collected was $2.4T. In 2023 US consumers spent $19T on goods and services.
That means you’ll have to have at least a 12.6% federal sales tax (plus the existing state & local taxes,) and we’d still be running the same deficits we are today and would still have our unsustainable national debt.
That would explode the wealth gap and make black markets boom.
Lol… there’s a wealth gap because a lot of people are lazy, irresponsible and don’t make good decisions. Poor people aren’t poor because rich people are rich.
Many are not lazy, irresponsible and make bad decisions.
I come from a poor family and everybody worked. I had my second job at age 12 sweeping floors at the local grocery store to help pay off my family’s grocery bill.
Most of my friends from that poor neighborhood had similar jobs.
Are you still poor or did you move up the economic ladder?
Everyone I know started their adult life poor, many with debt from school but we all managed to move into the middle class and higher. Being an adult isn’t that difficult.
Top 10th percentile income earner since I was 30. 
There are poor, lazy and indigent folks in every country, it comes with the territory. You can hate them, loathe them, despise them, make fun of them, kick them, or help them. Guess which strategy produces the most desirable results for you and the country you choose to live in?
The wider the wealth gap the more problems that disparity brings with it.
Our wealth gap is so bad that millions of poor, uneducated, and low skill people are clamoring to get here.
Trump took care of that, now they are clamoring to get out.
Secretary Noem announced that 1.6 million “illegal aliens” had left the U.S. by August 2025, Homeland Security (.gov).
What does Donald Trump have to do with tax penalties for widows?
That shows that people that are willing to work hard and not make excuses can lift themselves out of poverty. You should share how you did it with the bottom 50 percentile, that will help close the wealth gap in America.
The unfair tax discussion led to possible solutions, the solutions led to alternative taxing methods which led to the effects of those alternative methods which led to a pros-vs-cons discussion.
It’s how many people think, we’re trying to solve problems. Most men are from Mars and are problem-solving oriented, most women are from Venus and just want to air their problems and complaints.
Please forgive us Martians.
Good!!!
It should have been happening for the last 25 years!!
We have the world’s richest poor.
No because with this you are still playing favorites just like the income tax. It encourages marriage and other nice things they want you to do.
Fair tax is better because it does not tax the poverty level of income for all and then everyone pays the \same on the stuff they buy. Much better idea of letting everyone chose what they want to buy.