The U.S. has the most complicated and difficult tax system in the world; we've made it hard to file and pay taxes.

It turns out a VAT - a value-added tax - is a very easy tax to collect and a very hard tax to evade. It's a really good idea. It was invented about 60 years ago in France, of course. Because they're so good at taxing. They had a business tax that was easy to evade, and the head of the French IRS invented this value-added tax, which is very hard to evade.

The U.S. has the most complicated and difficult tax system in the world; we've made it hard to file and pay taxes.

Corporations use all sorts of complex stratagems to move their profits overseas, and thus escape the U.S. income tax.

Professor Eric Zolt of UCLA, said to me, "The VAT is such a good idea, mark my words, within five years, the U.S. will have a VAT." Then he said, "Of course, I've been saying that for 20 years."

Starting in the '80s or so, after the United States sharply cut its rates, other countries decided they better do it too, and here's how you do it: you just wipe out the exemptions, the deductions, the credits, the depreciation allowances. And people complain, "Oh my God, it's terrible," but you give them much lower rates and you give them an easier form to file, and people accept that tradeoff.

The higher the rate, the more interest there is in avoiding the tax. Either you move or you shift your profits overseas, as American corporations have proven very good at doing.