Flat Taxes are Big in the Former USSR. Have They Worked?
GOP presidential candidates Herman Cain, Gov. Rick Perry, and Newt Gingrich have all introduced proposals for flat taxes, which aim to tax everyone at the same rate. The idea is to simplify the tax code, getting rid of loopholes and reducing entitlements and deductions. Gingrich and Perry have both promised that Americans will be able to file their taxes on a postcard.
Flat income taxes have been criticized for putting a greater tax burden on middle-income people while cutting taxes for the rich. Critics say they would bring in less revenue for the government to fund social programs (though as Rachel Weiner puts it at the Washington Post, “of course, for many conservatives, a drastically smaller government is a feature, not a bug.)
http://www.propublica.org/article/flat-taxes-are-big-in-the-former-ussr.-have-they-worked