Simple Taxes for Thee, But Not For Me

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Howard Gleckman at TaxVox summarizes the #1 tax problem identified this year by Nina Olsen, the National Taxpayer Advocate at the Internal Revenue Service: complexity.

Olsen estimates that individuals and businesses spend 6.1 billion hours preparing their returns. That equal to a year's labor by three million full-time workers. Individual taxpayers are so befuddled by the Code that she reports 89 percent either pay a preparer or buy commercial software to help with the paperwork. The total cost of compliance in 2008, Olsen estimates, was $163 billion, or more than 11 percent of total income tax collections. The average out-of-pocket cost per taxpayer: $258. Something is very wrong when we have to pay a vendor $258 just to perform the most basic of civic duties. ....More troublingly, all this complexity is driving people to cheat. More than 60 percent of self-employed workers (whose income tax is not withheld) either under-report income or over-report deductions. Olsen attributes at least some of this behavior to taxpayers' belief that they are paying more than their fair share while others are avoiding tax. Nobody, she says, wants to be a "tax chump."

I don't disagree with this. I would love to create a simpler tax code, and on the business side I'd be willing to do away with the corporate income tax entirely. As a confirmed bleeding heart liberal, of course, I'd like to do this in return for a code that's more progressive and raises more revenue. But also as a confirmed bleeding heart liberal, I'd like to point out a few things about tax code complexity that our conservative aristocracy doesn't often acknowledge:

• That $258 number is an average, and most likely includes a whole lot of people paying $29.95 for a copy of TurboTax and a rather smaller number of people paying their Park Avenue accountants $100,000 per year. The average schmo doesn't spend anything like $258 on tax preparation. And keep in mind that a fair number of low-income filers use tax preparers like H&R Block not because they need help, but because they offer "refund anticipation loans" that allow people to get their refund checks faster. (At the cost of a fat fee, of course.)
• But aside from these kinds of loans, why do low and middle-income filers use any tax preparation at all? Most of them have only wage income and very simple filing requirements. The reason varies, of course, but a lot of it is due to the complexity and auditing requirements associated with the Earned Income Tax Credit. And why is the EITC audited so vigorously? Because Republicans insist on it. We don't want poor people gaming the system for a few hundred extra dollars, after all. This might not be so bad (there really is a certain amount of fraud associated with EITC claims) except that.....
• The vast bulk of tax avoidance is done by the rich, not the poor. David Cay Johnston reported on some of the most baroque tax avoidance schemes for us last year, and he estimates that in total this costs us something like $300 billion per year. And to make things even worse, Republicans have waged a decade-long war to reduce audits of the rich by the "jackbooted thugs" of the IRS. Just to take the most recent example, Johnston reported in 2006, "The federal government is moving to eliminate the jobs of nearly half of the lawyers at the Internal Revenue Service who audit tax returns of some of the wealthiest Americans, specifically those who are subject to gift and estate taxes when they transfer parts of their fortunes to their children and others."

This post isn't a disagreement that we ought to have a simpler tax code. It's just a reminder that a big part of the reason for that complexity is that rich people want it that way. A simple tax code is hard to game, after all. If we really, truly tried to create a simpler tax code that removed all the common ways that high-income taxpayers fleeced the system, the loudest cries of anguish would come from conservatives, not liberals.

http://motherjones.c...xes-thee-not-me

[mawilson 2,133]

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

"Simple tax code" = "Stick it to the taxpayer"

Just say no.

[Stanley Hermosill 1]

The current tax system is the product of piecemeal changes that have been made over decades. We would do well with CTR (comprehensive tax reform), or at least making the process user friendly. Then again, this would kill a 200+ billion dollar industry...

[mawilson 2,133]

The current tax system is the product of piecemeal changes that have been made over decades.

Piecemeal changes = deductions

We would do well with CTR (comprehensive tax reform), or at least making the process user friendly.

Sure, just don't expect to pay less in taxes after all is said and done.

[^_^ 5,021]

Piecemeal changes = deductions

Sure, just don't expect to pay less in taxes after all is said and done.

If it makes the process easier, that eliminates the need for most to pay "tax preparation fees", thus eliminating what does amount to an invisible tax paid out to cpa's and/or turbotax/hrblock.

[mawilson 2,133]

If it makes the process easier, that eliminates the need for most to pay "tax preparation fees", thus eliminating what does amount to an invisible tax paid out to cpa's and/or turbotax/hrblock.

A reform would probably make the process easier; I doubt it would eliminate the process altogether.

People would still have to file tax returns. If they can't do basic maths today

(A + B = C, Form 1040 EZ), what makes you think they'll be able to do it after the reform?

[^_^ 5,021]

A reform would probably make the process easier; I doubt it would eliminate the process altogether.

People would still have to file tax returns. If they can't do basic maths today

(A + B = C, Form 1040 EZ), what makes you think they'll be able to do it after the reform?

I am sure some people will always use an accountant or turbotax to file even the simplest of returns. But simplifying the code and the process would almost certainly reduce the number of people who use those services.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Eliminate the income and payroll taxes. Impose a 500% duty on timbits. Charles! alone can payoff the debt in 6 mos.

Seriously, go to a straight payroll tax, and for most taxpayers, that would eliminate filing. Let the IRS figure out your tax liability, and either pay a refund, or send you a bill every year.

Edited January 7, 2011 by Some Old Guy

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Eliminate the income and payroll taxes. Impose a 500% duty on timbits. Charles! alone can payoff the debt in 6 mos.

Seriously, go to a straight payroll tax, and for most taxpayers, that would eliminate filing. Let the IRS figure out your tax liability, and either pay a refund, or send you a bill every year.

How would the IRS know your tax liability?

[mawilson 2,133]

How would the IRS know your tax liability?

When you get a W-2, the IRS gets a copy.

When you get a 1099, the IRS gets a copy.

When you get a 1099-INT, the IRS gets a copy.

etc

What else do they need to know? Your mortgage deduction? Nope, doesn't exist anymore - tax simplification, remember?

[^_^ 5,021]

A few years ago the state of New Jersey sent me a bill for the difference between what I claimed I owed them and what they knew I owed them. I just paid it, because they were right - I overlooked one 1099-INT. But it did get me thinking.. if the state knows how much I owe them, why don't they just tell me? If I want to "check their work" I can do so but if I trust them (or choose to be lazy) then I can just trust them and pay.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The author fails to understand how tax policy is used to encourage or discourage certain kinds of behavior. In fact, it's quite effective that way.

[^_^ 5,021]

what.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

what.

Tax incentives do affect behavior. The EITC never made much sense to me, other than it was used as a way to help business keep the minimum wage low.

Edited January 8, 2011 by 8TBVBN

[^_^ 5,021]

OK.