Washington Post:  Ron Paul Hits Huckabee on Taxes, by Matthew Mosk:

Apparently, there’s only room in the Republican presidential field for one candidate who wants to abolish the IRS. At least that seems to be the message in a new Ron Paul mailing in New Hampshire. The glossy flyer from the Texas congressman and maverick presidential contender does not target the two Republicans who lead in the polls there (Mitt Romney and John McCain); it instead goes after Iowa caucus winner Mike Huckabee, calling him a "habitual tax hiker."

Christian Science Monitor:  Fair Tax? Flat Tax? Candidates Tout Novel Plans. Two Want to Abolish the Income Tax – and the IRS. Others Say They’d Renew the Bush Tax Cuts, by Peter Grier:

Tax reform is a perennial issue in presidential politics, and it may yet emerge as a key topic in the 2008 race. …

President Bush’s tax cuts expire in 2010, and the eventual GOP and Democratic nominees are likely to sharply disagree as to whether they should be extended. And this election cycle features two candidates – Republicans Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul – who propose to eliminate the federal income tax. …

Candidates’ tax proposals – like all their line-by-line issue papers – can be seen as symbols of the image they want to project, as much as serious ideas about governing. …

As a group, the Democratic candidates differ sharply with their Republican counterparts. All say they would repeal the Bush tax cuts, for instance. For a Democrat, such a statement is the political equivalent of a no-brainer – it offers an easy way to break with the policies of the past and project an image of change. But there are differences in their repeal proposals. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama would both end the Bush cuts for households that earn more than $250,000 a year. John Edwards, who has positioned himself slightly to the left of the two front-runners, would set the bar lower, repealing them for households with incomes of more than $200,000. Mr. Edwards says he would also raise the rate on capital gains taxes to 28%, so as to "reverse the war on work" and set the taxation of interest income level with that of middle-class earned income, according to his website.

U.S. News & World Report:  After Iowa: 8 Quick Thoughts on the 2008 Race, by James Pethokoukis:

• I have feeling we are going to start hearing a lot more from Hillary Clinton about Barack Obama’s "trillion dollar" increase—as she described it in a debate—in Social Security taxes.
• As an insurgent candidate, Huckabee didn’t have the dough to hire economists to create an economic plan. So he went with the off-the-shelf FairTax. Not only does it call for abolishing the IRS—a nice populist touch—but it has the added benefit of a built-in constituency. With Huckabee needing to flesh out his policy agenda, don’t be surprised if the sweeping FairTax recedes a bit from sight and becomes more of a policy end goal, as when opponents of abortion talk about banning it after first creating a stronger "culture of life." In the interim, Huckabee could advocate pursuing a more family-friendly tax code, such as dramatically expanding the child tax credit or, as Ramesh Ponnuru of the National Review has suggested, combining the existing child credit, the child-care credit, and the adoption credit into a new, enlarged child credit of $2,500 per child—available, in full, to all households with children , to be applied against income taxes. Expect supply-siders like the Club for Growth to scream.
• If Mitt Romney doesn’t win the nomination (and right now the betting markets put the odds at John McCain 31%, Rudy Giuliani 29%, and Romney and Huckabee tied at 16%), one of the other candidates should swipe his elegantly simple tax plan—essentially a progressive consumption tax—and elegantly simple budget plan, which would limit the growth of discretionary, nondefense spending to the rate of inflation minus 1%. He never pushed them very hard in the debates. Maybe Huckabee could call it the New FairTax.

For a detailed look at the tax plans of the presidential candidates, see:

• Citizens for Tax Justice
• Tax Help Blog
• Tax Policy Center

Update:

• Time:  The Fair Tax Has Its Moment in the Sun. Could There be More to Come?, by Justin Fox
• A Taxing Matter:  Fair Tax? Huckabee’s Win in Iowa Requires More Discussion of His Tax Proposals, by Linda Beale
• Tax Policy Blog:  The Role of the FairTax in Huckabee’s Win, by Gerald Prante
• Tax Vox:  Obama: Big Win, Small Change, by Howard Gleckman