The Hill News

Newt Gingrich joined Rick Perry in calling for an opt-in flat tax Tuesday, saying that his version would, at most, tax Americans at a 15 percent rate. Perry is proposing a 20 percent flat-rate, and both candidates say they would preserve standard deductions and tax credits.

"An optional flat tax reform will be simple: tax returns can be done on one sheet of paper," wrote Gingrich in an editorial for the Quad-City Times in Iowa. "Subtract from income a standard deduction and deductions for charity and home ownership, multiply the result by the fixed single rate of taxation of at most 15%, and the process is over."

Republicans candidates have been looking with envy at the success Herman Cain has enjoyed on the back of his 9-9-9 tax proposal, which would replace current federal taxes with flat 9 percent corporate, income, and sales taxes. In a New York Times/CBS poll released Tuesday, Cain led the Republican field, with more support than Gingrich! and Perry combined.

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