The Armey proposal is a single flat rate for everyone, and the elimination of all deductions, (like home mortgage interest for example!) The rate would be 17% and the standard deductions would be raised accordingly. (Single $11,300; Head of Household $14,850; Married Filing Jointly $22,700; Children Allowance $5,300 each). The deductions were reduced to keep the plan revenue neutral. There would be no direct personal income tax on interest, dividends or capital gains. (Look here for more on how these will be taxed indirectly).
A big proponent is Steve Forbes though his proposal is slightly different. You can see his views on the flat tax This calculator now calculates HIS proposed tax as well. From Newsweek I am taking his numbers to be a $26,200 exemption for marrieds, with a $5,300 per child exemption (that would be $13,100 for singles I am assuming).
Phil Gramm wants to use a 16% rate with lower exemptions ($22,000 Married, $11,000 Single, $5,000 per dependent), but maintaining deductions for mortgage interest and charitable contributions. Then he wants to index the capital gains to inflation before taxing them. Well, since I can't figure out everyone's indexed capital gains, I have left that part out of the calculation (i.e. no indexing). So I leave capital gains and non-wage income as just additional income to tax.
I made up this form to compare the changes for my own income/deduction combination and thought I would write it up as a HTML form. For more information on current taxes, see the U.S. Department of the Treasury This form uses the 1995 tax schedule. For details on the 1995 tax rates, look here
You may also like to look at the links to other financial related sites at Centre Square.
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