A flat tax exempting people earning less than a certain level of income, would be alright with me.  Surely it would be preferable to the colossal mess we have right now.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

a progressive tax with more than two level of taxation (which is what you are saying) without exemption and deductions would be fairer than both. Let's not throw the baby with the bathwater.

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

Why? There's no connection between flat and simplified. You could eliminate all deductions and make a progressive system more transparent (and cheaper), you can have a flat tax with the same faults as the current system. On a side note the top rate for state and local income tax in NYC is not marginal - i.e. if you qualify it applies to all your income, not just the amount above the threshold - it's known as the clawback provision.

No, this is just propaganda.

Tax code complexity doesn't come from the number of tax levels (one or ten line in a table) but from the sheer number of tax exemption (99.99% of the content of your favourite tax code).

"Niche fiscales" in french. I use only two niches fiscales and I divide my income tax by two. Only 8599865 pages left in the tax code...

All tax exemptions should be unconstitutional everywhere.

If a government wants to give money to someone, the government should just write a check and book it in the budget. That way it would be fully transparent to everyone.

And remember that tax exemption are only for those who pay a decent amount of taxes, direct check can be to everyone, not just the rich.

Nothing says the flat tax must be low, just flat.

Say 30-40 % flat tax on all incomes above 10.000 euros. These first 10.000 are completely tax free.

Or to quote Carl Bildt: No one who pays tax should recieve state subsidies, and no one who recieves subsidies should pay tax.

Though that would really just be a transparency reform, but still.

It would be great if one coule merge capital and labor taxes in some way too. Income is income, no matter the source.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.