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FLAT TAX : l’idée progresse
Le dossier sur la «Flat Tax» s’enrichi de trois nouveaux documents. Après les nouvelles démocraties de l’Est, la Grèce, l’Espagne, le Portugal y songent. Au Royaume-Uni et aux Etats-Unis la réflexion s’engage.

1 - Lire l’étude publiée par Adam Smith Institute «Flat tax –The british Case » de Adrei Grecu

2 - L’interview de Madsen Pirie, directeur de l’Adam Smith Institute, dans la tribune du 08.02.2006.

3 – A lire le passage consacré à la Flat tax dans l’article publié par the Heritage Foundation « The President’s Tax Agenda : Pro-Growth Measures Jeopardized by excessive Spending and Misguided Focus on Deficit” de Daniel J. Mitchell

«The flat tax is a very effective way to boost growth and reduce tax evasion. Nine former Soviet-Bloc nations have adopted variations of the flat tax, and the new systems have been a big success. This should not be a surprise. After all, Hong Kong has been the fastest growing economy in the world since it implemented a low-rate flat tax in 1947.

Some of the developments in Eastern Europe are worth noting:

  - Estonia was the first to adopt a flat tax, back in 1994, and it is now known as the “Baltic Tiger” because of its fast growth. The government is even in the process of lowering the flat tax rate from 26 percent to 20 percent to reap even bigger benefits.

- Russia’s 13-percent flat tax has been in effect just since 2001, but already personal income tax revenues have skyrocketed by 106 percent—and that is after adjusting for inflation!

- Slovakia’s 19-percent flat tax is even younger, taking effect in 2004, and yet the results have been stupendous. On a per-capita basis, there is now more foreign investment in Slovakia than anyplace else in the world.

There also is good news in nations like Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Georgia, Ukraine, and Serbia. The flat tax should not be seen as an elixir, of course, particularly if nations are still struggling with rule-of-law, property rights, and sound money problems. But it is an ideal tax system for nations seeking faster growth and better tax compliance. That last point is particularly worth highlighting because one of the distasteful features of the Bush tax agenda is an ephemeral “reduce the tax gap” proposal. This presumably means giving the IRS more power to harass entrepreneurs and other taxpayers. This is akin to a dog chasing its tail. Low tax rates and a fair tax system is the recipe for tax compliance.”