chris (02/11/83)
Any tax can have loopholes; in theory, however, income tax is progressive and fixed rate tax is regressive. Please use these names properly; they have a meaning in economics apart from their immediate intuitive meanings (like, huh, progressive sounds Good, eh?) To drive the point across to people like Steve Tjiang, a tax of 20% on someone earning $14,000 /annum and %50 on someone earning over $100,000 /annum is PROGRESSIVE. Loop holes are used to bring down a gross income into a taxable income; the tax after that is PROGRESSIVE. Of course a fixed rate tax is regressive; if you don't understand why, then you cannot do arithmetic and probably should not be allowed to mix with real people (tongue in cheek; no flames about real people, please!). Chris Retterath.