House Republican leadership are attempting to get their caucus to coalesce around a two-tier flat tax. The flat-tax proposal is expected to resemble a measure (HR 3818) sponsored by Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, to allow taxpayers to opt out of the current income tax system and opt into a two-tier flat tax. Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., has said he supports "giving Americans a choice between filing under the current system or using a two-rate flat tax with generous deductions." McCain "wants a simplified tax. He wants taxpayers to be able to file a one-page return and something they could opt into," said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. Look, it's not the progressive schedule of tax rates that makes filing taxes so complicated. The complicating factor is what to tax. Figuring out what can be deducted, how much can be deducted, what kind of income is taxed at rate X and which is taxed at rate Y, are what turns the annual ritual into a multi-page extravangaza. Here's how our progressive tax structure filing taxes complicated an confusing: (click to enlarge) Why flat tax advocates believe this little calculator is responsible for complicated and multipaged tax returns is beyond me. Is it possible that they would use obtuse tax forms as an excuse to decimate the tax code's progressivity? And ironically, there's overlap between the One Page Return Flat Tax group and those who are constantly suggesting new ways in which the tax code can ease all our social ills (i.e. tax breaks for health savings accounts, tax breaks for homeowners, tax breaks for charitable donations, etc). It's precisely this chipping away at the tax code that makes filing taxes so complicated.