by Dan Mitchell | Mar 30, 2012 | Blogs, Economics, Flat Tax, Taxation, VAT
What do the flat tax and national sales tax (and even the value-added tax) have in common? As I explain in this Senate Budget Committee testimony, they are all single-rate, consumption-base, loophole-free tax systems that fulfill the key principles of good tax policy....
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 29, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Regulations, Taxation
Last year, I shared a very amusing Michael Ramirez cartoon showing Obama as the European lemming. Now, Mark Helprin takes a much more serious look at the same issue in the Wall Street Journal, commenting on the wisdom (or lack thereof) of Obama’s interest in the...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 25, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Tax Competition, Taxation
Tax competition, as I have explained to the point of being a nuisance, is an important restraint on the greed of the political class. Simply stated, politicians are less like to over-tax and over-spend if they know that geese with the golden eggs can fly across the...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 16, 2012 | Blogs, Flat Tax, Taxation
Early in 2010, I wrote about a reprehensible IRS plan to create a cartel in the tax preparation industry, which would screw small firms and entrepreneurs to help line the pockets of big companies such as H&R Block. And, earlier this year, I specifically criticized...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 29, 2012 | Blogs, Flat Tax, Taxation
This interview with the IRS Commissioner is really irritating. He wants us to believe that all the problems exist because of bad laws enacted by Congress. I certainly agree that the crowd in Washington is venal, corrupt, and duplicitous. But the IRS takes a bad...
