This is exactly what is wrong with the tax code. I empathize with this guy. Even I find some parts of the tax code completely incomprehensible, and I am a lawyer with accounting experience. Thankfully, Trump and the Republicans are planning to simplify the tax code.
The fact of the matter is the tax code is stupidly complex for no good reason. It's used to promote policy and benefits the wealthy (Warren Buffett has noted this numerous times). That's it. If the focus was on collecting taxes it would be stupidly simple.
I'm pretty sure the real reason its complicated is because politicians are all trying to get deductions or special rules for their favorite special case. I thin its simplistic to blame tax preparers.
Actually simplifying tax is one good thing Trump has done. Hopefully will continue.
Exactly right. A consequence of the US tax code being so complicated is that regular people (even very highly educated regular people) do not understand even elementary tax concepts.
I've always wondered: Is the tax code kept complex because large accounting firms lobby for it? Much profit (and many jobs) would be lost if it was simplified.
I totally agree. Not only does it make the tax code much more complicated than it needs to be, but it also discredits the "fairness" of taxes, damaging the very legitimacy of it.
The tax code is deliberately complicated because, in part, of the lobbying by Intuit and H&R Block. They're creating an artificial market for their $150 services and convinced the populace this is reasonable.
"The problem is that no tax code can close all loop holes because you just can't foresee the creative ways people will out maneuver the tax code."
What if this is the entire tax code:
All US citizens must pay a tax of 40% of all the money they receive from any other entity for any reason.
I haven't thought through the wording completely, but if we replace the convoluted tax code with a MUCH much simpler one, lots of these problems would go away.
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