by Susan Cronk

Created on: March 18, 2008

A flat tax amendment makes sense on so many levels, from greater economic stability, healthier cash flow for government programs and services, and greater productivity and profitability for businesses and individuals, who would no longer have to expend time and emotional energy each year preparing taxes. But there are two areas where a flat tax serves the government and the American public on a fundamental level: the reduction of government operating expenses with respect to manpower and non sustainable resources.

Let's look at the first. Certainly, while the IRS would still be needed to manage the revenue generated by a flat tax and ensure its equitable distribution, there would be a significant reduction in personnel needed to process income tax paperwork. And, it's certainly feasible, with ever-advancing technology what it is, that even that little post card could be eliminated in favor of electronic submissions. Manpower costs are the chief expenditure of any venture, whether it be a business or a government entity. A reduction of government personnel and a redistribution of their valuable expertise into the private sector would increase the financial strength of the country. Businesses would have the opportunity to acquire such expertise to streamline their own companies, increase their own profitability, which would have the return effect of bolstering the economy.

Now, for the second point, savings that benefit taxpayers directly. The savings are not only monetary, but more importantly environmental. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 is a good example of our government using its power for the greater good. It has reduced expenses to a certain degree, but its implementation has been too slow for the country to feel the true benefit that it has the potential to birth. While millions of Americans have begun filing returns electronically for year, and while some W-2s are available in electronic form as well, there are still billions of printed pages each year, between tax forms, supplement forms, W-2s, 1099s, 1098s, etc that must be created, mailed, distributed, and eventually discarded into landfills. Then consider the supporting documentation that Americans must keep to prove their dedication, billions of slips of paper that would no longer be needed and which could be recycled into much more useful things, and eventually never created to begin with. Consider the footprint that billions upon billions of printed documents has upon the nation from a real estate perspective. Storage and the resources necessary to maintain documents and prevent deterioration are a real expense. Warehousing of documentation and the manpower needed to collect and catalog the records and to discard outdated materials could further be reduced and that space could be better utilized, perhaps even for more business start-ups.

The flat tax makes sense on so many levels. It has the potential to streamline our nation's government for greater productivity and to reduce the non sustainable resources and the environmental impacts of our current processes, in addition to the economic advantages to the poor and its ability to bolster the national economy. Americans should consider the Flat Tax Amendment the key to a door behind which lay personal and national profitability and greater economic stability.

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