@shawbridge, The individual income tax raised and tax expenditures are almost the same amount. This means individual tax breaks are about the same amount as income taxes. The number is somewhere around $1.4 trillion each.
Have you seen this?
http://taxfoundation.org/article/summary-latest-federal-income-tax-data-0
This is a list of adjusted gross income and average taxes paid for different income groups.
There has been an income tax increase since 2012 for higher income taxpayers so the average income tax rate paid has increased on the top end.
We can get rid of tax deductions and credits. We can set tax rates to mimic that chart so each income class pays the same amount of taxes as they did before we got rid of tax deductions and tax credits.
Taxable income would rise, rates would go down, after tax income would remain the same for each income group.
Those who rely heavily on tax deductions and tax credits would probably lose. Those that don’t would probably win.
People would still give to charities.