In honor of tax returns being due this week I have to get something off my chest. Taxes are too freakin’ complicated! An H&R Block ad claimed there were 1,700 changes to the tax code in 2009 alone. This year’s form has a spot for a deduction if you took in someone from the midwest. What the hell is that all about? The current tax code is over 7,000 pages long. That is not a typo. 7,000 pages. Who determines the tax codes? Congress.
I am not speaking as a person who is uncomfortable around numbers. I have an undergraduate degree in accounting, in my prior life I was also a CPA and earned an MBA in finance from a fairly decent business school (well I assume it was decent, it certainly cost enough). Yet even with that background I can not prepare my own stinking tax return. That is ridiculous. Like millions of other Americans I am forced to spend hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars annually for the privilege of figuring out how much I owe Uncle Sam.
Each year as members of Congress add to the already labyrinthine tax code (usually to benefit special interests) they are oblivious to the effect they have on ordinary Americans. I am curious how many of them do their own taxes. None? One? I propose that each and every member of Congress has to sit down and fill out their own tax return. Let them witness first-hand the absurdity that is the American tax code. It is another argument for a flat tax. One that could literally be filled out on an index card.
I don’t mind paying my fair share of taxes. I also don’t advocate abolishing the IRS. They are working with what Congress gives them. But please, just make it a level playing field. Mark Twain said that the only certain things in life are death and taxes. Complying with one should not lead to an early date with the other.
By the way, you have until April 18th to file this year. Apparently employees in our nation’s capital have off this Friday for Emancipation Day. I wasn’t even aware that was a holiday. They can add it to their days off that include Lincoln’s Birthday and Columbus Day. Chew on that fact the next time you ponder the plight of public sector workers whose salaries you pay.
I’ve heard they are extending the midwest tax deduction next year to all those that send birthday and Christmas gifts to friends in Omaha. My favorite wines are cabernet and syrah – and I do provide receipts for tax purposes.
Posted by Frank | April 14, 2011, 5:08 pmI’ll bring it up with my accountant. But since I live in the former Soviet Republic of Pennsylvanistan buying that wine may be tricky.
Posted by Thomas | April 14, 2011, 5:10 pmWe all know why the tax code passed by Congress is 7,000 pages long. Each Congressman has to get his bribe (euphemism – campaign pledge)from as many lobbyists as possible. The payoff to the lobbyist is the little codicil added to the tax code to protect some company or industry, to grant special privilege, to allocate funds for some arcane activity or organization,to create some tax loophole etc. This adds up to 7,000 pages.
This Congress however, has reached its apogee, its zenith, its highest point of corruption. Not because of the tax loopholes, which have been going on forever, but because this House of Representatives selected as their Speaker, a man who only a few years before, was photographed handing out bribery checks on the House floor to every Republican Congressman who would accept one. Nobody disputes this. The bribes were campaign donations from the tobacco industry to get Congress to subsidize the industry. Of course, every bought Cogressman vowed this would not influence his vote, since such was illegal. This is not a partisan issue. The Democrats are capable of accepting equal gratuities for their votes. In fact, President Obama was reported by the New York Times as having accepted ten million dollars from the drug industry to help in passing his health reform bill. They got their payback.
We use the term, height of corruption, because the bribery was so blatant.
And to think, there are New York City elevator inspectors who accept bribes of a few hundred dollars and go to jail
for it, as they should.
Congress is indeed a privileged society.
Posted by Irving Gerber | April 14, 2011, 5:34 pmI would like to receive replies. I failed to indicate that.
Posted by Irving Gerber | April 14, 2011, 5:35 pmWell said. My accountant told me the provision for taking in a displaced midwesterner was related to some lobbying by a Congressman. I’m still not sure what it’s all about.
Posted by Thomas | April 14, 2011, 6:51 pmCongress should be forced to live under all the laws they pass. Many of things they impose on companies, they exempt themselves when running their own congressional staff.
They also have exempted themselves from the new healthcare program.
Posted by Mickey Finn | April 21, 2011, 10:51 amAnd don’t forget my suggestions for a paycut.
Posted by Thomas | April 21, 2011, 10:59 amMickey’s right. For example, before voting on cuts to services, each one forgoes their federal salary and cush surroundings to spend a month trying to get help from whatever service they intend to hamstring.
Posted by thegradualday | April 23, 2011, 1:40 pmAwesome idea. Also, heads of companies should have to call their own customer “service” numbers to see how lousy they are treating their valued customers.
Posted by Thomas | April 23, 2011, 1:43 pm