With the Iowa caucuses fast approaching, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said that he wants to see the IRS abolished and a so-called flat tax system introduced.
DeSantis, who has supported such a system in the past but has notably not raised the issue much on the campaign trail, mentioned the policy idea during a CNN town hall less than two weeks before voters in the Hawkeye State become the first in the nation to make their choice for the GOP ticket.
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The 45-year-old governor said that he thinks such an arrangement would be an “ideal tax system to be able to take away the distortions.”
“I want to eliminate the IRS, and I would like a flat one, single rate flat tax. Obviously, I would only do it if it was lower taxes for everybody. But that is the ideal tax system,” DeSantis said, although he didn’t face any follow-up questions about the policy proposal.
DeSantis was asked whether he supports the elimination of the federal income tax. While DeSantis didn’t delve into the details of his theoretical tax plan, a flat tax system is generally one where there is one single tax rate.
DeSantis served in Congress from 2013 to 2018, and during that time, he co-sponsored the FairTax Act, which has been proposed unsuccessfully by a contingent of conservative lawmakers for nearly two decades.
The perennial “FairTax” legislation, which has never come close to becoming law, envisions simplifying the tax code by scrapping the income tax, payroll tax, corporate taxes, gift taxes, and the death tax altogether and replacing them with a nationwide consumption tax on goods and services. The IRS as an entity would in turn be killed off as part of the plan.
Proponents argue that the change would be fairer to the taxpayer by clarifying and simplifying the tax code while supporting businesses in the United States. The proposal gained national attention during the 2008 presidential election when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee ran on the platform during the Republican primaries.
Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner in Iowa and every other primary state, used DeSantis’s support of such a proposal as a cudgel to attack him last year. A pro-Trump political action committee cut an ad attacking DeSantis’s support for the idea in May 2023.
“In Congress, Ron DeSantis pushed a 23% national sales tax where the middle class pays more,” the TV ad proclaimed.
While it is unclear whether discussion of a flat-tax-like system will become a mainstay talking point for DeSantis on the campaign trail, he has previously voiced support for ending the IRS during his presidential campaign.
During an interview with Fox News’s Dana Loesch shortly after announcing his primary bid, the Florida governor was asked for his position on the matter.
“Are you for a fair tax, a flat tax, where do you stand on that?” Loesch asked DeSantis.
“So, the answer’s yes. I think the IRS is a corrupt organization and I think it’s not a friend to the average citizen or taxpayer,” DeSantis said. “We need something totally different.”
“I’ve supported all of the single rate proposals. I think they would be a huge improvement over the current system and I would be welcoming to take this tax system, chuck it out the window, and do something that’s more favorable to the average folks,” he added.
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The Washington Examiner reached out to DeSantis’s campaign for further details about the flat tax idea.
DeSantis’s support is running in second place to Trump heading into the Iowa caucuses, according to a RealClearPolitics average of recent Iowa polls. Trump has just over 51% support as of Friday and DeSantis has 18.6%. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is in third with just over 16% support.
