GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry says his 20 percent flat tax will relieve tax burdens for everyone, refuting criticism that the proposal actually increases rates for the middle class while giving the rich a break.

"This is a tax cut for everyone in this country. Those who want to pick this apart, those that want to play class warfare, that’s their business," Perry tells CNBC.

Perry is currently running in fifth place, trailing front-runner Herman Cain followed by Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul in that order, according to a CBS/New York Times poll, and hopes his tax proposal gives him a lift.
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Aside from pushing through a flat tax, Perry says he'll pull back every regulation that’s gone into effect since 2008, adding he would repeal Dodd Frank, the section of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that requires companies to provide an auditor's report on the adequacy of their internal controls, and President Barack Obama's healthcare law known widely as Obamacare.

Rick Perry (Getty Images photo)

"But more importantly, there are going to be a lot of people who don’t have a job today that will have one," the Texas governor said.

Some say a flat tax isn't so simple, that no matter what the rate, filing will remain complicated.

"It will force some to do taxes twice to see which way they come out ahead," says Bruce Bartlett, a former domestic adviser to President Ronald Reagan and a former Treasury official in President George H.W. Bush’s administration, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

"It adds complexity to an already complex system."