Leftist economic ideas are based on the worst human emotions, the UK edition

[Sheilbh]

Are you thinking of a poll tax?  A flat tax just imposes the same % on everyone, regardless of income.  It's the very definition of non-regressive and non-progressive.

Yes. It doesn't matter about ability to pay and doesn't take into account overall tax burden - indirect taxes, social security - all of which are likely to weigh heavier and take a larger proportion of income for someone with a lower income.

[Admiral Yi]

Yes. It doesn't matter about ability to pay and doesn't take into account overall tax burden - indirect taxes, social security - all of which are likely to weigh heavier and take a larger proportion of income for someone with a lower income.

None of which make a flat tax regressive.

[Sheilbh]

Yes. It doesn't matter about ability to pay and doesn't take into account overall tax burden - indirect taxes, social security - all of which are likely to weigh heavier and take a larger proportion of income for someone with a lower income.

None of which make a flat tax regressive.

How not? The poor would pay more tax as a proportion of their income than the rich.

Edit: Incidentally I think the biggest shift to 'progressive taxation' in the UK has nothing to do with rates, but was the abolition of treating married couples as a single taxable unit or allowing a working spouse to receive a proportion of their spouse's personal allowance. That probably helped two people together on a low income, but would significantly increase the bill for a high paid person with a non-employed or low paid spouse.

[CountDeMoney]

None of which make a flat tax regressive.

How not? The poor would pay more tax as a proportion of their income than the rich.

You're not going to win that argument around here with these anti-tax douchebags.

[Admiral Yi]

How not? The poor would pay more tax as a proportion of their income than the rich.

The poor do and would pay a larger proportion of their income on sales tax, VAT, national lottery, and payroll taxes.  Those taxes are regressive.  That doesn't make a flat tax regressive. 

Neither does Seedy's penetrating observation that you like the poor more than you like the rich.  Increasing your hatred of the rich will not make a flat tax regressive.

[DGuller]

Are you thinking of a poll tax?  A flat tax just imposes the same % on everyone, regardless of income.  It's the very definition of non-regressive and non-progressive.

Yes. It doesn't matter about ability to pay and doesn't take into account overall tax burden - indirect taxes, social security - all of which are likely to weigh heavier and take a larger proportion of income for someone with a lower income.

All of those are valid concerns, but irrelevant as far as progressivity is concerned.  Progressivity of taxation has a clear technical definition.

[CountDeMoney]

Neither does Seedy's penetrating observation that you like the poor more than you like the rich.  Increasing your hatred of the rich will not make a flat tax regressive.

The only thing penetrating around here is the unlubed assfucking the wealthy are getting away with at the expense of the lower and middle classes with your bullshit economic philosophy.

[Martinus]

By the way, I feel that I gotta come clean in that through tax structuring, I am paying a flat 19% income tax in Poland, while having earnings of app. 2000% of national average. But I am also a second class citizen in my own country and unable to formalise my long term relationship with my partner so fuck you, Poland.

[CountDeMoney]

But I am also a second class citizen in my own country

In most real countries, lawyers aren't second-class.

and unable to formalise my long term relationship with my partner so fuck you, Poland.

LOL, "Wiktor"

[Martinus]

Wiktor is so last decade.

[CountDeMoney]

That's not what I hear. 

[Martinus]

I am not sure where Tamas has gotten the idea a progressive tax system is not fair but that a regressive tax system that imposes the same burden on rich and poor is fair.

He's not advocating a regressive tax, he's advocating a flat tax.

Flat tax is de facto regressive as the basic cost of living is the same for everyone, and with pure flat tax there is no tax-free amount.

[Martinus]

That's not what I hear. 

I am actually in the same relationship (with the guy I wrote about some time ago in the TBR) since 2010. We had a rough start but now we found an equilibrium, thank you for asking.

[Admiral Yi]

Flat tax is de facto regressive as the basic cost of living is the same for everyone, and with pure flat tax there is no tax-free amount.

None of these things mean low income people pay a higher % of income.

This is basic math people.

[Martinus]

Flat tax is de facto regressive as the basic cost of living is the same for everyone, and with pure flat tax there is no tax-free amount.

None of these things mean low income people pay a higher % of income.

This is basic math people.

Not of flat income, but they pay a higher % of their disposable income.

Which ("disposable income" aka profit), incidentally, would be the amount on which a typical corporation would pay taxes on. So why should private individuals be treated differently.