Carson: Flat Tax Would Have to Be ‘About 15%’ To Be Revenue Neutral

Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson discussed his tax and spending plan, stating that the flat tax rate would have to be “about 15%” to be revenue neutral and that if every federal agency of subagency was trimmed by 2-3% there’s “a lot of savings” on Monday’s “Mornings with Maria” on the Fox Business Network.

Carson said, “In order have to remain revenue neutral we would have to make that rate at about 15%, and eliminate all deductions and all the loopholes. that would get us about 2.7 trillion. which is still short of the 3.5 trillion that we need, but, we haven’t talked about every aspect of capital investments, capital gains, which would also be at 15%. We haven’t talked about foreign income, which is not coming back now, but would continue to come back at a 15% rate, not at a 35 to 40% rate. I think that would make up pretty much all of the difference. But in addition to that, we have 4.1 million federal employees. We don’t need 4.1 million federal employees, and thousands of them retire each year, so by the process of attrition, allow that number to come down over the course of the few years, that will make a big difference. We have 645 federal agencies and subagencies, every single one which has fat in it, trim that by 2, or 3%, you’ve got a lot of savings there, you know, and applying things like Lean Six Sigma to each one of those agencies so that we begin to save, instead of wasting the taxpayers’ money.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett