Tuesday, February 03, 2004
What? A Bigger Tax Code
So the Administration wants to pile bunches more provisions onto the existing pile of law known as the Internal Revenue Code. Why not replace existing provisions? Why not combine things? Why add bunches more credits, exclusions, special rates, and exceptions?
You'll soon discover I'm not a fan of the existing tax code, nor am I enthused about the proposals to make it even more complex. It is true that I understand a fair amount of the tax law, and once upon a time I read the code cover to cover. That was when it could be published in one volume. Now it's two, each volume thicker than the one I read, and each one wider and taller. And the print size? Smaller, of course.
Maybe the grand plan is to make the tax code so huge that five million new jobs for tax lawyers, tax accountants, tax return preparers, tax appraisers, and tax actuaries will be created. Now THAT surely will get the economy going. It's much like hiring a bunch of folks to move bricks back and forth without building anything.
Closing on a note of appreciating the good life. Imagine if the toll booths on bridges required toll computation the way Congress wants us to compute federal income tax liability. People would die of old age waiting in line.
You'll soon discover I'm not a fan of the existing tax code, nor am I enthused about the proposals to make it even more complex. It is true that I understand a fair amount of the tax law, and once upon a time I read the code cover to cover. That was when it could be published in one volume. Now it's two, each volume thicker than the one I read, and each one wider and taller. And the print size? Smaller, of course.
Maybe the grand plan is to make the tax code so huge that five million new jobs for tax lawyers, tax accountants, tax return preparers, tax appraisers, and tax actuaries will be created. Now THAT surely will get the economy going. It's much like hiring a bunch of folks to move bricks back and forth without building anything.
Closing on a note of appreciating the good life. Imagine if the toll booths on bridges required toll computation the way Congress wants us to compute federal income tax liability. People would die of old age waiting in line.
Stay tuned.
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