Flat deduction == cost of living in region.
Do that, and you've got me. Make it a per state adjustment, set by census numbers.

I would rather the plan was as simple as possible. That is the real virture of the flat tax, making the whole tax plan so simple that it's hard to mess up, confuse or cheat.

A cost of living by state could be workable. But you would have to be carefull about how cost of living is computed and organizing it on anything less then a state level would leave it open to abuse. Even organized at the state level I can see the rich moving their offical place of residence to be where the base line is the highest.

I would rather see the base line set in a very simple manner at a national level such as take the average national income and the median national income, average the two and set the base line at half of that for the next year.

Jay