The commission members decided that another popular deduction, for charitable contributions, should be expanded rather than cut back.

All the current tax deductions and credits would be repealed, including the popular home-mortgage deductions and benefits approved just this year, including the $500-per-child tax credit.

And if Republicans succumb to political pressure and begin to give back popular deductions - like the mortgage interest deduction - tax experts estimate that the number might have to climb even higher.

Under it, affected taxpayers have to do a second tax calculation without claiming popular deductions like those for state and local taxes that they have come to rely on.

No one in Mr. Dole's camp wanted to get too specific because keeping popular deductions would mean a tax rate far above the 17 percent that Mr. Forbes proposed.

He also signaled he would be open to keeping some of the most popular deductions and tax breaks, like the deductions for mortgage interest and charitable giving, in any new system.

The Internal Revenue Service has thrown in a twist: some popular deductions won't even show up on the 17 million tax forms the agency mailed out.

The country's most popular deduction is without a doubt the interest paid on a home mortgage.

Ends some tax loopholes but keeps popular deductions like the home mortgage deduction.

The plan, known as the U.S.A. Tax, would keep the familiar progressively higher step-by-step income tax rates and retain popular deductions for mortgage interest and charitable contributions.