People don't pay their fair share of taxes because the tax code is complicated. And the tax code is complicated because rich people lobby politicians into engineering loopholes and dodges for them. It's that simple. And then rich people can afford the accountants and lobbyists and lawyers to find those loopholes So I have no sympathy for them.

The tax code should be very simple. It should have only one guiding principle: the more you make, the more you should pay, both in relative and absolute terms. The simplest way to ensure that is to make the first X AMOUNT of income tax-exempt, and then some flat Y PERCENT of everything above that taken out as taxes. X and Y can then be determined politically.

There should be no other exemptions, deductions,etc. But I do believe the poor should pay less, the percentage of their income that goes to necessities is greater, they have less available for luxuries and investments, so it is only fair they are compensated for that. But there is no fixed cut-off point between rich and poor, it should be a graduated and pro-rated scale, and I think the X/Y system would accomplish that. The tax system we have now is pretty much set up that way, but the complexity and exemptions pretty much wipe out the element of fairness.

I do agree with the conservatives on one point. Taxes should be a means of raising revenue, period. No social engineering or economy-stimulating embellishments that can be perverted by some lawyer or accountant. No matter how well-intentioned or carefully thought out, some sleazebag in a suit is going to be able to figure out a way to get his rich clients to profit from it, at everyone else's expense. Other than my strict X/Y type numbers, the code should be as simple as possible, so we can put the tax-dodge industry out of business once and for all. Those people produce nothing, they are parasites, pure and simple. And to blame the poor for setting up that system of exemptions and deductions is just plain wrong. The businessmen, politicians and accountants are to blame, and they are either rich, or are paid handsomely by the rich.

The reason the French Revolution happened was because the tax law was unfair.
No, it wasn't poverty or tyranny, France was (by European standards) fairly prosperous and just. But the Church, high nobility and the rich merchants had pretty much figured a way to control the tax system, which led to glaring inequality of income, so the impoverished aristocracy and the growing (but threatened) middle classes enlisted the poor to rise up and take over. Sound familiar?

Of course, after Monsieur Guillotine arrived on the scene, all that was soon forgotten. Revolutions have a tendency to do that.

Not much in the way of meaningful tax reform is ever likely to happen, here. Those complaining most about high taxes now are primarily concerned that THEIR taxes are too high. And of course, THEIR taxes are never low enough. The people who are most able to influence the tax laws are the same ones who are best in a position to profit from them: businessmen, politicians and lawyers, the unholy trinity of civilization. So if they are complaining about taxes being too high, then I suggest they comfort themselves with Leona's Law. It's worked fine for them so far.