Ronald Reagan said it back in 1983: "Our federal tax system is, in short,
utterly impossible, utterly unjust and completely counterproductive [it]
reeks with injustice and is fundamentally un-American it has earned a
rebellion and it's time we rebelled."
But what politician would rail against the country's irrational,
insufferable, infernal Internal Revenue Code today, except perhaps for
ceremonial purposes? Some in Congress have made distinguished careers
leading the innocent and unwary through its byzantine ways and byways,
occasionally constructing secret passages to favor the special interests
they represent. Whole industries like accountancy and tax law have been
built on it.
This republic, which was born of a tax revolt-indeed, several of them-has
lost touch with its roots. We have become inured to the injustice and, even
worse, the unknowable intricacies of the tax system so that complaints about
it sound more like ritual than indignation.
Most of us don't object to paying our taxes-living in the United States of
America is not only a privilege but a great bargain. What we object to, or
should, is how hard, how complicated, how expensive and sometimes just plain
hopeless it is to figure out how much we owe.
Awash in a sea of paper, or maybe in an ocean of electronic impulses in this
internetted age, the American taxpayer needsŠ
HELP!
Every new sweeping tax law Congress enacts-always called a "reform"-makes
the job even more complicated and, if possible, more confusing. And the tax
code longer.
One such grand reform, makeover and general overhaul was enacted in 2001. It
included 441 changes in the tax code. Just one of them-about how to claim a
tax rebate if you didn't get one that year-generated a million errors on
that single line of people's returns.
The country's tax code has grown as indecipherable to the average American
as Hammurabi's. It might as well be written on clay tablets.
Even the length of the Internal Revenue Code is a matter of debate, with
estimates varying widely. According to the U.S. Government Printing Office,
it's 13,458 pages long and available in 20 volumes ($974, shipping
included), but that doesn't count an additional 3,387 pages contributed by
Congress, available for $179. Which brings the grand total to 16,845 pages.
It sounds like just the thing to keep on your bedside table if you should
ever have trouble nodding off.
For the average American family, filling out a tax form has become like
attacking a puzzle to which, often enough, there is no right answer. But
we're all supposed to swear, on penalty of perjury, that we've done our best
to find it. It's enough to take the bloom out of April even in these
dogwood-blessed latitudes.
What to do? Don't mend it, end it. Abolish the tax code and start all over.
Think about it: Would anybody starting from scratch come up with a system as
arcane and counter-productive as the one we've got? So why not opt for a
clean break with the past?
Yes, abolish the Internal Revenue Code and begin anew.
But would that be fair? Well, one thing this current complex,
loophole-riddled tax system isn't is fair. Even a flat tax, if it didn't
start till incomes reached, say, $30,000 a year, might be fairer than the
monster we've got on our hands now.
Put this thing out of its misery and ours. At a time certain. Say, December
31, 2008. The government would have until then to come up with a simple,
fair substitute.
Too much to ask?
To rephrase a thought from Dr. Johnson, nothing so wonderfully concentrates
the mind as the prospect of being executed. Kill the Internal Revenue Code,
and the way to create a simpler, fairer system might become clear to all
those politicians, bureaucrats and other unimaginative types who now say it
just can't be done.
We'll be told that now is no time to fiddle with the tax system, not with
the economy humming along.
And when the economy slows down, as it will sure as there is a business
cycle, we'll be told that now is no time to fiddle with the tax system and
risk a recession.
It's hard to crack the wall of inertia out there. How many years have I been
writing essentially this same column on Tax Day? I've lost count. The only
change? The tax code grows longer and more complex.
There will always be an excuse for doing nothing about taxes. But abolish
the old tax code on a date certain, and you can bet the politicians in
Washington will get busy devising a new one. They'll want to get paid, won't
they?