The flat tax is dead.

At least until the sequel when, like many another vampire before it, the plot to shift more of the burden of paying for civilization from the rich to the working class will again be abroad in the land. Because, at its base, that's what the flat tax is.

The more people think about that, the worse the flat tax looks.

Basic fairness is not the argument that appears to have doomed the various flat-tax proposals that were being eyed by the Utah Legislature's Tax Reform Task Force. Instead, it was the position formally taken last week by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that the loss of taxpayers' ability to deduct charitable donations on their Utah TC-40s would be a bad idea.

Not the best argument, in our judgment. But 'tis enough, 'twill serve.

Those who argue for a flat tax may rise again. They remain mesmerized by the simple, but deceptive, argument that a flat tax is fair for rich and poor because all would pay the same percentage of their income in taxes.

But even if the tax rate is the same, and the dollars paid by the rich are more than those paid by the poor, a flat tax is not a fair tax. A tiny reduction in the income of a working family stings much more than the same percentage, or even a much larger one, charged to a higher-income household.

Besides, nobody pays only income tax. As part of the mix with property taxes and, of greatest impact, sales taxes, a flat income tax rate only serves to make the total tax structure more regressive, more burdensome on the lower-income brackets.

There are exemptions and rebates that could ameliorate the burden on the working class. But every one of them would reduce total revenue and require higher rates to make up the difference.

Keeping the charitable deduction, as the LDS Church wants, is reasonable. The real solution, of course, is a truly progressive income tax structure, one that would increase the burden as a household's ability to pay increases.

That would put the monster into its coffin for good.