That is not the only reason, when you have a dozen paying in to support one, it is a little better setup than when you have 2-3 paying for each beneficiary

Preventing a flat tax from adversly affecting the lower end is a simple matter of exempting the first $15K or so from taxes, sort of like what our current President did with property taxes in Texas, first $50K of value exempt from assessment. Rich bastards with million dollar homes relatively unaffected, but peasant in a shack pays nothing. It would not eliminate the tax code, but it would probably raise tax revenue because you could prevent any tax dodges.

With respect to a national sales tax, even if you refund foreign people's money when they leave the country, it would still be a method to get cash out of the leeching illegals. Folks on the border would maybe run across to buy stuff to avoid this tax, but this is already happening, I guess you have never been to a border town near Mexico. It is one thing to walk across and buy a bottle of tequila, and quite another to purchase a car. Perhaps I should have said it would simplify the tax code for the average person. I never said it would eliminate the IRS, perhaps I also need to determine a way to make the charachters I type more plain and easy to read. You may have noticed that lots of businesses have computers. Tracking sales, internet or otherwise would not be thenightmare you perceive it to be. States already do it, is the Federal government that much more inept than Delaware?