Support for flat tax

John Bassett (letters, March 12) writes, inter alia, of replacing income and other such taxes with a flat transaction tax, and claims that would mean the wealthy have to pay tax. Give that man a beer!

For some time, I been trying to float the idea of doing away with all taxation (including those stealthy taxes such as motor vehicle annual licensing) except GST, and adjusting the rate of GST accordingly.

On the one hand, that would seem to simplify things immensely. No one would need to bother with tax returns, and there would cease to be a need for an army of IRD staff to process tax returns.

On the other hand, as Mr Bassett points out, there would be no way of the wealthy employing tax-avoidance tricks, and the biggest spenders would pay the most tax.

No doubt there are flaws in my idea, and I hope some reader(s) will quickly point them out. LEO LETCH Benneydale