To keep this from going too long, I'll only hit a few of them.

- Would you retain a progressive system or switch to a flat tax?

Flat tax. Hands down. It would involve no altering of the Constitution (like the Fair Tax requires). Under my 20-20 plan, I would exempt the first $20,000 from any tax, then tax each dollar above that amount by 20%. I would also raise the interest income to 20% as well, so no matter where you make money, it's taxed at 20%. It would bring a steady flow in, and even if you live off you interest (meaning you don't pull an income), you would be taxed at 20%. Sounds fair to me.

- Would you decrease income tax and increase usage (eg, gas) taxes?
Sure. I know Libertarians suggest this all the time. They tend to follow a "legalize it and tax it" approach to things like prostitution and marijuana. I'm not a Libertarian, but I don't think it's a bad idea. If red states like Nevada and Colorado don't have a problem with it, I don't see it as a major issue.

- Would you alter our withholding system so employees keep more money until taxes are due?
No. the reason why it was put in place to begin with is because as a whole we tend to spend what we make. Some people are convinced that "they don't even pay taxes, because the government pays them," when actually they are getting a refund. Withholding enforces the idea of "out-of-sight, out of mind," and keeps people from going into bankruptcy when they get a $7500 tax bill in April.

Would you tie the AMT to inflation, scrap it, or leave it?
Scrap. AMT was an envy tax, and now everyone is getting bitten. Let the government find a way to budget properly and cut spending, like the rest of us do.

Would you change SS and Medicare payroll tax rates? Change the SS cap? I might leave it the same, but I just don't feel as if I'm getting any SS anyway. SS is supposed to go under in 2042, just when I turn 62 and can start to claim benefits. Knowing that I probably won't get any return on my "insurance investment" will probably make me more reluctant to raise the cap on how much more of my hard-earned paycheck they can take.

- Would you (continue to) promote saving and investment through tax policy? Home owning?
You know it! Saving is very important, and we need to convince future Americans to save like their grandparents did, to have a supplement for Social Security. And I would favor responsible home-owning and discourage giving out loans to people who cannot pay them.

- Would you permit taxpayers to target a portion of their payment towards specific programs?Not a bad idea, as long as it's properly regulated. I wouldn't want people to cheat the system by having John Smith donating to the "Smith Family Empowerment Fund."

- Would you change the child tax credit? Change rates for married filing jointly? Nah, I'm not heartless. The EITC/Child Tax Credit is helpful to families who need a little help sometimes. I would extend this. If you're married filing jointly, I would not penalize you for this.

Would you eliminate the gift tax? The inheritance ("death") tax? To compromise, I would bring it down to the flat tax rate of 20%. 50% is kinda harsh. I agree money can be taxed "every time it changes hands," but we should be reasonable, so that we won't have an AMT-type problem in the future.

-Would you tinker with the rates for different brackets? With what goal in mind? See first answer above. My goal is to help educate people that they are funding the government and they should keep an eye on how their money is being spent in Washington.

1) Treat the normal income of hedge fund managers as normal income instead of as capital gains income.

2) Bring back estate tax.

3) if we're feeling frisky try this:

And as long as we're thinking big, I'll toss out one of my favorite outlandish suggestions: why not abolish the corporate income tax as part of this grand bargain? After all, it doesn't raise all that much money any more (less than 2% of GDP); it's by far the biggest source of tax complexity we have; it mostly gets passed on to consumers anyway; and it's the foundation of all corporate welfare. Take away the corporate income tax, and presto! No more tax breaks for special interests. K Street would be decimated.

Consider this deal: The corporate income tax goes away. It's replaced by a VAT plus an increase in capital gains and dividend taxes to the same level as the tax on income. (Added bonus: the whole "double taxation" argument goes away since corporate profits aren't taxed in the first place.) And the whole thing is used to fund national healthcare (along with the payroll taxes and general fund revenues that are already dedicated to healthcare). States could be encouraged to follow suit by agreeing to pick up the Medicaid costs of any state that kills its own corporate income tax.

Big business ought to love it. Their income taxes go away, and with it whole platoons of their accounting departments. No more relocating corporate headquarters to Aruba! Healthcare also goes away, which promises to save them both money and hassle. The replacement tax, a VAT, is easy to administer and is directly passed on to customers, much like a sales tax. Every business would be on a level playing field, regardless of size or industry.

Of course, corporate executives wouldn't much like the idea of higher taxes on investment income. But they'd go along because they make lobbying decisions based on what's good for the corporation, not what's good for their own bank accounts, right?

Washington monthly

Throw current code in the garbage. Clean Slate.

1. No itemized deductions on personal income tax.

2. All income is taxed by the same method.

3. Method is NO INCOME TAX up $30K (single or married), 10% from 30K to 70K, 15% from 70K to 150K, 18% above 150K.

Accompanying spending cuts:

Freeze social spending for 3 years and then vote by department for 3 year periods.

Cut military by 30%

Abolish DofEd and several others. (gimme time, I'll find them).

I won't even touch non-discretionary though it does need reform.

Reforming the tax code is quite beyond the capacity of a single human being, so I won’t even try. Rather, I’ll share the principles that I think should guide such a task:

1. Necessities, like nutrition, basic shelter, and non-elective medical care should not be taxed.
2. Taxation should be as simple and transparent as possible. People should be able to: prepare their own returns without professional assistance, easily determine what they owe, and know how moneys are spent. Itemized deductions, and the various “tax credits” for every conceivable thing, open the possibility for gigantic loopholes and corruption, undermining the principle of simplicity. Abolish them.
3. Taxation should be progressive; people should be taxed in proportion to their ability to pay, and services funded by taxation should be universally available to everyone.
4. Taxation should be Democratic. By that, I don’t only mean “no taxation without representation,” but that people should have a more direct say in the budgetary process—either by actually participating in allocation, or ranking priorities.
5. If corporations want to be considered “legal persons,” they should pay taxes like real persons.
6. Income should be taxed.
7. Concentrated wealth and inheritance should be taxed.
8. Capital gains should be taxed.
9. Payroll taxes (FICA) should be replaced by a revenue neutral carbon tax. Since this is regressive, there should be some form of exemption for basic public transportation (and necessities, as outlined above).
10. There should be some form of LVT and VAT, with corrections in the latter to make it less regressive. Product pricing, as suggested by another poster, should include taxes.
11. A Tobin tax on international currency transactions should be implemented to reduce speculation.
12. Tariffs should be levied on goods not meeting rudimentary environmental, labor, health, and human rights standards.
13. I’m sure I’m missing something significant and oversimplifying what I have mentioned, but anything else would go beyond the scope of my post.

All that said, I’m no big fan of taxation, what it is used for, or the state generally. Most of our discretionary budget, for instance, goes to fund a trillion-dollar-a-year war machine . That’s certainly not on my agenda.

Abolish the income tax on labor and capital. Replace with usage taxes,land tax, excise taxes, modest tariffs.

Raise the minmum age of ss and medicare by 5-10 years with the goal of eventually phasing it out.