Repealing all tax exclusions and deductions would permit much lower top rates

Evidence

The good news? If we repeal all existing deductions and exclusions, we’ll actually be able to make the progressive tax rates lower, because more income will be subject to tax overall—even taking into account my proposed living allowance deduction. A 2010 report by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission estimated that if all exclusions and deductions were repealed, the tax system could have three rates: 8 percent at the lowest-qualifying income levels, 14 percent in the middle, and 23 percent at the top. (By comparison, the lowest tax rate is currently 10 percent and the highest is 37 percent.) The Seaborns and the Brewsters and their children will pay higher taxes on their investment income and their inheritances; my parents, the Browns, and their contemporary counterpart, the Galloways, will pay less. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 526

Categorization

• SEED: Counterintuitive policy point: broadening the tax base so much lowers headline progressive rates — good fodder for a piece debunking ‘tax cuts for the rich’ framing when the base broadens.
• XREF: Connects to the standard public-finance base-broadening literature and the Laffer/progressive-rate tradeoff debates.