Scrap the Income (Dividend) Tax

100 Years ago this month, President Woodrow Wilson signed the 16^th Amendment and the income tax was born. Now we have an army of IRS agents enforcing 73,954 pages of federal tax rules. Liberals love taxes to penalize the evil rich. As Chris Edwards from Cato points out, “The key problem is that liberals have favored an expansive definition of income that is anti-growth and punishing to savers and investors. The liberal ‘Haig-Simons’ income has been the starting point for our income tax, and it includes all labor income, capital income, and even various non-cash items such as the implicit rent from owning a home. It also includes the accrued value of all capital gains, whether the gains are realized or not.” Edwards concludes, “The Jeffersonian goal of abolishing internal taxes seems distant, but we can make the federal tax system much simpler, more efficient, and respectful of limited government. After a century, it’s time to scrap the income tax and replace it with a consumption-based flat tax.”