Click here for an index of Book Summary . By Robert E. Hall, Alvin Rabushka, Dick Armey, Robert Eisner, and Herbert Stein Robert E. Hall and Alvin Rabushka are generally acknowledged as the fathers of the flat tax, a proposal that captured the public imagination in the 1996 presidential campaign and that continues to stir discussion and controversy in the field of tax reform. In this volume, Messrs. Hall and Rabushka explain their plan and explore its many subtleties. The book includes a commentary on the flat tax by House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who has introduced legislation that would enact the Hall-Rabushka proposal with little change. Also included are two critical assessments, one by economist Robert Eisner, the other by Herbert Stein, a former chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Tax forms can fit on postcards.
With this sentence Robert E. Hall and Alvin Rabushka begin their description of the flat tax, and this element of their proposal, more than any other, has caught the public fancy. But despite the name, a uniform tax rate is certainly not the only important aspect of the flat tax, perhaps not even the most important one. The treatment of business taxation is arguably more significant for the economy than the individual income tax, though the latter is of greater interest to the public at large. Hall and Rabushka propose a wage tax that, in place of deductions, would have generous personal allowances for individual taxpayers and their family members. These allowances would ensure that the tax system would remain progressive despite its single rate of 19 percent.