Quote Originally Posted by jfrazierjr View Post
Agreed. That's why we have the abysmal tax system we have. It is really in neither parties favor to make sweeping overhauls of the US tax system. But really, is there any reason for it to be 60,000 pages (or what ever the crazy number is). Why can't it be simple, perhaps 15 pages via some form of National Sales tax. No deductions, no credits, no paper work to keep up with. Personally, I favor the Fair Tax(132 pages) idea brought forth by Congressman John Linder(R-GA) and Neil Boortz(Talk show host), but again, such things get little to no play in Washington due to lobbyists whose interests would not be served. I would expect that large number of lobbyist spend majority of their time dealing with tax issues and such a plan would eliminate this junk entirely.
It is mind-numbingly comlex, which makes it easy for those with a well-paid staff of tax lawyers to find loopholes, and a simpler approach ought to be instituted. (However, I disagree with the Fair Tax national sales tax proposal as a replacement for the Income tax, as from what I've read about it I don't think it's really all that fair and will disproportionately tax the poor; some version of progressive income tax is a century-old concept in this country, effectively pioneered by Theodore Roosevelt, who saw that it was necessary to level the playing field of opportunity for all--some may get rich, and that is fine, but the next generation needs the same chance for everyone to get rich as well... or at least that was apparently T. Roosevelt's belief.) But I think a fairer and simpler system than what we have in place can be figured out, if there was the political will for it.