[watertom]

The tax code is lopsided in favor of the rich, it's not about paying a fair share, it's about the burden of the taxes. The burden of taxes on the non-rich is significantly greater than it is on the rich.

If I make $400K and I only need $75K to live, the burden of my taxes is negligible.

If however I make $80K and I need $75K to live, taxes are an unimaginable burden.

We fix the problem by evening out the burden, forget about loopholes, eliminate all but 2 deductions, dependents and primary residence, that's it.

Because the deductions have been eliminated lower the tax rate for each bracket to the effective tax paid for each bracket, the IRS has this data.

Then end capital gains tax, all income is taxed as earned income.

These changes will give 99+% of the population a tax break, and it will simplify taxes drastically for everyone.

The final step is to add 2 new brackets,

>$5M with a tax of 45% >$10M with a tax of 69%

The rich won't need to be making decision about if and when to eat, but the burden of taxes will get leveled out.

We'll also have enough money to pay for Universal Healthcare, and probably college tuition for everyone.

Go lookup the charts for income inequality for the U.S. When the GOP tax cuts from Reagan's first term took effect the income inequality gap started in earnest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_Unite...

[alasdair_]

> Then end capital gains tax, all income is taxed as earned income.

Wealthy people can keep their money growing inside a corporation essentially forever. It never becomes “income”; instead they just borrow against the assets at exceedingly low rates of interest as well as classifying personal consumption items (like a private jet) as a corporate expense.

It’s possible to keep doing this until death, or even longer.

[andrepd]

A surprising number of things wrong with the world today started in the Reagan/Thatcher/etc era.

I agree with the general sentiment of your post (though I disagree that capital and labour should be taxed the same way). I'll also add the following: implement an LVT. It is the most economically “efficient” tax there is, and morally perfect at the same time. Then with the money you collect through LVT you can lower income tax.

[refurb]

You do realize that the percentage of all taxes paid by the top 1% has only increased, not decreased over time?

If you include transfer like EITC, the US tax code is highly progressive and the tax burden on low income earners has only gotten less (e.g. Trump’s doubling of the standard deduction).

I would argue your plan to “fix” the tax code is already flawed if the basis of your changes is wrong.