Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host Russ Roberts

of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Our website

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My guest today is Alvin Robushka, the David and Joan Tretel senior fellow at Stanford

University's Hoover Institution. 25 years ago, Alvin, with Robert Hall, authored the

flat tax, unleashing a major debate on tax reform in the United States and around the world.

In honor of the 25th anniversary of the book, the Hoover Institution has reissued it. In

honor of April 15th, we're here to discuss the ideas. Alvin, welcome to Econ Talk.

Thank you. Alvin, a lot of people in the wake of April 15th are muttering and complaining

about how unpleasant it is to fill out a tax form and file your taxes legally and correctly

in the United States. Every once in a while, that generates a discussion about what we might

do about that, and you propose the idea of a flat tax. Tell us its virtues and its vices

if there are any. I'm not predisposed to see any vices, so that part of the answer is

easy. I'll provide that later, if necessary.

The virtues are simplicity. Instead of complicated long forms, a business requires a simple

postcard and an individual requires a simple postcard, so that two postcards are no more than

anyone individual would have to confront. The complications in the systems are relatively

cleaned up in exchange for one simple low rate. Almost all of the deductions, exclusions,

exemptions, and credits are eliminated. The corporate personal taxes are fully integrated,

so we eliminate the double tax on business income, which in effect means there's no tax

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