Republican presidential candidate, Rick Perry, is trying to set himself apart from the other candidates with his bold tax reform talk. He wants to dramatically reduce taxes, and with that would come deep cuts in government funding and government programs. Key points of Perry’s plan:
- eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits
- eliminate estate taxes
- eliminate taxes on dividends & capital gains
- popular deductions remain in tact
- $12,500 personal exemption plus $12,500 for each dependent
Under Perry’s plan, we would get to chose between paying a 20% flat tax or paying under the current system. Those who oppose this proposal say that the wealthy taxpayers in our country would chose the flat tax and enjoy huge savings, everyone else would stick with the current tax system and pay what they are paying now, and there wouldn’t be near enough revenue for the government to continue operating.