Skip to main content

American Taxation

March 2023
1min read


I found Mr. Gordon’s conclusion about the merits of a flat tax on income to be a bit misleading.

While he does not make clear exactly how a flat income tax would apply to corporate income, I can only presume that he has in mind a tax similar to proposals made by the Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes, the House Majority Leader Dick Armey, and the economists Robert Hall and Alvin Rabushka. It is not true to say that such a tax would tax “all income but. . . only once.” These flat-tax proposals envision levying a “cash flow” tax at the corporate level with immediate and full deduction of all capital expenses. As a result, most income from capital would not be taxed. For most individuals, over the course of a lifetime the Hall-Rabushka/Armey/Forbes flat tax would be equivalent to a tax on wages and salaries. In fact, the proposed personal exemption would provide the only real difference between the flat tax and a consumption-based tax.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Stories published from "September 1996"

Authored by: Frederic D. Schwarz

Washington Says Good-bye

Authored by: Frederic D. Schwarz

Invading California

Authored by: Frederic D. Schwarz

Bathing Belles Lettres

Authored by: Frederic D. Schwarz

The Battle of Blair Mountain

Authored by: Frederic D. Schwarz

Fatty’s Fall

Authored by: Frederic D. Schwarz

When Shirley Temple Didn’t Order One

Featured Articles

Rarely has the full story been told about how a famed botanist, a pioneering female journalist, and First Lady Helen Taft battled reluctant bureaucrats to bring Japanese cherry trees to Washington. 

Often thought to have been a weak president, Carter was strong-willed in doing what he thought was right, regardless of expediency or the political fallout.

Why have thousands of U.S. banks failed over the years? The answers are in our history and politics.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.

Native American peoples and the lands they possessed loomed large for Washington, from his first trips westward as a surveyor to his years as President.