Our nation's schoolchildren abide such rules everyday--so why is government allowed to fill libraries with the mind-numbingly complex literature that is income tax law? Congress must scrap the existing income tax regulation in favor of something the American public, even they themselves, can read. As was shown by the tax-code embarrassments of Timothy Geithner and Kathleen Sebelius, even the authors of our income tax laws find them utterly unreadable.
America needs to have a tax code it can read within a week, not several lifetimes. The fact that a billion-dollar industry that revolves solely around completing your income taxes for you is shameful and reflective of the government-sponsored confusion the IRS has created.
Furthermore, simplifying the income tax system will reap benefits for the American people and business. Even the IRS stands to gain, as it can more easily find the true tax evaders, not just the innocent ones who misread a bit of the legalese. Small-business owners will no longer lose valuable time sifting through complex taxation literature or have to pay their entire profit to a company like H&R Block. By streamlining the income tax, it will be a second stimulus to small businesses across America.
What I advocate is none less than an extension of these criticisms:
-Whether it be through Congressional legislation or by Geither if he as such authority over the IRS (which I doubt) is to publish a document, 100 pages, double spaced and in 12-point Times New Roman, that contains the full form of income taxes for the individual and business.
-If Congressional action is required, then make it clear that this is not a subversive method of raising taxes. Do not touch tax rates. However, the well-concealed loopholes manipulated by the petrochemicals industry and big-businesses will have to be dropped to fit the length limit.
Comments (2)
Assuming we have to have taxes, I have proposed we REPEAL the 16th amendment and go back to the United States Constitution, Article 1, Section 8 with only one phrase omitted. Back then, they wanted to take the sum total cost of government, divide it between the 13 colonies and then the people in those colonies would pay their taxes. But that meant that the people in a larger state would pay less than the people in the colony of Rhode Island. So, it was never used. Along came the thieves of 1913 who introduced planks 2 & 5 of the Communist Manifesto. We got the 16th Amendment and the Ferrel Reserve Banksters.
THROW THEM OUT, by binding them down by the chains of the Constitution. Repeal the 16th amendment and take the sum total cost of legitimate government and divide it between the sum total tax payers. It would cost about $200 per person per year! See http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/6609-4049
See http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/6609-4049 and you'll understand how the entire tax code could be kept to a few pages only. Divide the entire cost of legitimate government by the number of taxpayers. WHAT could be more simple and fair than that!