Everyone wants to simplify the tax code. They just want to simplify the parts other people like. We could cut out a big chunk by getting rid of farm subsidies. My wife (went to high school and college in Iowa) doesn't think that's acceptable. We could simplify by getting rid of all the handouts for older people (mortgage interest deduction). My parents, who save tens of thousands in taxes each year from their McMansion, don't like that idea. I'd love to have a flat tax with no brackets. But my liberal friends like the whole progressive taxation thing. The tax code is a soup but it's one that reflects an equilibrium of all these interests.
Also, the idea of government creating a complex tax code just for funsies is naive. The tax code is huge because accounting is complicated, and taxation is basically a superset of accounting. The GAAP rules are 25,000 pages. That's probably the lower bound in how much you can simplify the tax code (without incorporating the GAAP by reference, which basically would outsource writing tax law to a private organization).
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.
It would be easier if the tax code was simplified, oh wait the tax-prep companies are also lobbying against that. Maybe we should dismantle them, take their money away and use that to pay lawyers and tax specialists to simplify the tax code and create a nice and easy filing interface.
We need a simpler tax code with fewer deductions before a simple tax form will make sense. Otherwise people will just get their simple tax form and pay TurboTax or someone else to squeeze every penny out of the deductions.
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.
Also, "simplify the tax code" is too often used as code language for wiping out progressive taxation (on the right) or wiping out corporate subsidies (on the left). Which makes the politics of the issue that much more intractable.
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.
I don't want the tax code simplified, I want them to send me a tax bill and for that to be the end of the story for those of us not running a business.
This is the problem with a complex and byzantine tax code: entities that can manage and manipulate the complexity profit by it. Entities that don't have those kinds of resources are stuck.
It would be good if folks from all political walks of life could come together for some kind of tax simplification. I highly doubt this will ever happen, though, as tax law is used as just another club by big businesses to beat down the small. They have the money, and they're willing to pay-off the political class to make various arguments about how simplifying things would be bad for the little guys. That's not changing. (This has nothing to do with current politics, by the way. I am not following the U.S. tax discussion and it's not relevant to my point. My point is that whether it's business, tech, or government, complexity itself is an enemy)
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