Steve Forbes Quotes

Tax reform for the 21st century means rewarding hardworking families by closing unfair loopholes, lowering tax rates across the board, and simplifying the tax code dramatically. It demands reducing the tax burden on American businesses of all sizes so they can keep more of their income to invest in our communities.

As president, I would promote a Fair and Flat Tax plan, known as the 'EZ Tax.' My tax plan would be the largest tax cut in American history, reforming individual, business, and worker taxes.

Politicians all kiss babies but how do they stand on tax relief for families with children?

In 1994, Estonia became the first European country to adopt a flat tax, and its 26 percent flat tax dramatically energized what had been a faltering economy. Before adopting the flat tax, the Estonian economy was literally shrinking. In the eight years after 1994, Estonia experienced real economic growth - averaging 5.2 percent per year.

I think a flat tax has merit. Anything would be better than the current tax code.

If you flatten out the tax rates... and you start eliminating the different write-offs that are allowed to take place there, you make it so the special exemptions have gone away. It's better for business, and it's better for Montana.

If you can clean up the cesspool of the tax code and give us a pro-growth tax code, that is how you grow the economy. That's how you take power and money out of Washington and give it back to the people and we are so excited. We have a president [Donald Trump] that is here to work with us in doing that.

Everyone wants a more simple tax system. But if this means that certain tax breaks have to be cut, people are no longer so enthusiastic.

Over the longer term, we need to work toward a pro-growth tax code that is fairer and simpler than what we have now. Anything that meets those criteria is going to be better than the failing and dysfunctional tax code we have today.

Every time in this century we've lowered the tax rates across the board, on employment, on saving, investment and risk-taking in this economy, revenues went up, not down.

We're going to have a tax cut. Today's American family is overtaxed at all levels.

I think we can have some tax reform, but that doesn't mean tax increases. We ought to make the, the rates flatter. We ought to get rid of a bunch of those loopholes.

We had 90 percent rates, but nobody paid them. And so you had all these exemptions, exclusions, shelters, all this kind of stuff. And that's why most Americans are saying, 'Look, let's just be honest. Let's have lower rates, but everybody pays them.'

The important thing about tax reform is you make the tax code less complicated, easier for people to understand.

To me, there are four F's in a good tax system: it ought to be flatter, fairer, finite and family-friendly.

The 9-9-9 plan would resuscitate this economy because it replaces the outdated tax code that allows politicians to pick winners and losers, and to provide favors in the form of tax breaks, special exemptions and loopholes. It simplifies the code dramatically: 9% business flat tax, 9% personal flat tax, 9% sales tax.

I support both a Fair Tax and a Flat Tax plan that would dramatically streamline the tax system. A Fair Tax would replace all federal taxes on personal and corporate income with a single national tax on retail sales, while a Flat Tax would apply the same tax rate to all income with few if any deductions or exemptions.

We need to stop kicking the can down the road and rethink our entire tax system toward long-term, comprehensive tax reform.

In a perfect world we would bring corporate tax rates down to 25% or less so we can get competitive in the world economy. Ultimately, I would love to see a flat tax.

Reducing the tax burden is necessary to produce economic growth.

The key to revenue growth is tax reform that closes loopholes and that is pro-growth. Then with a growing economy, that's where your revenue growth comes in, not from higher taxes.

Tax reductions are usually simpler and less distortive. I'm certainly willing to look at getting rid of tax deductions/credits, and go to dramatically reduced rates.

We need to lower tax rates for everybody, starting with the top corporate tax rate. We need to simplify the tax code. The ultimate answer, in my opinion, is the fair tax, which is a fair tax for everybody, because as long as we still have this messed-up tax code, the politicians are going to use it to reward winners and losers.

I support transitioning from the progressive tax to a flat tax system - both individual and corporate/business.

Tax reform is the legislative challenge of a generation for America. It hasn't been accomplished since 1986, when President Reagan and Congress delivered the most sweeping overhaul of our nation's tax code in American history. 2017 is the year to change that and make history of our own.