Tax Proposal Would Be Flat-Out Unfair

Scott Burns offers some evidence [“Could Flat Tax Better Serve Homeowners?” March 27] to prove that the homeowners benefiting most from mortgage interest deductions are those in the top income brackets. Mr. Burns then grabs logic by the tail and swings it around to maintain that all taxpayers would be better served by a lower and flat tax. It seems logical to me that a flat tax would again be mostly to the benefit of those in the top income brackets, since they now pay far more into the system than they would under the flat tax proposals I have seen.

Why not use basic logic on this problem: An amount, “x,” is required for the operation of the government. Whatever is lost in income tax collection must be recovered by other taxation, most probably a sales tax, which definitely punishes those with lower incomes since they spend a far greater proportion of their incomes than do the wealthy. If Mr. Burns really has the non-wealthy in mind, his empathy is not revealed in that article.

WILFRED COUZIN

Laguna Niguel