Senate Candidate Del Beccaro Proposes Flat Tax

Tom Del Beccaro, former chair of the California Republican Party and a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2016, proposed a flat tax on Tuesday.

Del Beccaro is running for the seat to be vacated by retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA).

Surprisingly, Del Beccaro is following the model of Gov. Jerry Brown, who ran for president in 1992 on a pledge to create a 13% tax across the board.

A statement from the Del Beccaro campaign explained his plan in further detail:

• The elimination of the current corporate tax system. Instead, it should be replaced with a 15.5 percent net business income tax with immediate expensing for business purchases and deductibility of wages and salaries.

• The replacement of the current personal income tax with a flat 15.5 percent rate on wages and salaries, capital gains, dividends, interest and inheritance.

• The elimination of all deductions, except the standard deductions should be doubled.

• The payroll tax should be retained but its cap should be eliminated.

• The elimination of the estate tax, Affordable Care Act tax and all tariffs. The net business income tax would be applied to imports at the border.

• Any change to this system should require a three-fifths vote of both houses of Congress.

According to the Del Beccaro campaign, his state proposal includes:

• A six percent flat tax imposed on all federal income subject to tax.

• The elimination of the thousands of pages of state tax code. Californians would be able to fill out a simple post card for their tax returns, instead of enduring the expensive cost of tax filing.

Economist Stephen Moore, an adviser to Del Beccaro, said in a campaign release: “Tom’s flat tax proposal would jump start the economy by restoring economic incentives and lead to more jobs nationally and for California.”