On Taxes

First, I would like to ask a favor. If anyone reading this blog, can easily explain to me the current tax code of the United States (preferably in a way that everyone can understand), please let me know. However, anticipating that no one will be able to give me a satisfactory answer… Let's talk taxes.

The United State of America pulls in around 1.5 trillion dollars each year in tax collection. It makes sense: the government has a lot of things on its plate. (We will talk about governmental obesity later.) Still, at the end of each year the ledger still registers a red minus sign.

This year, the IRS requested 11.6 billion dollars of congress to maintain operations. We could banter numbers all day, but when it comes right down to it the IRS is effective: they triple the money put into it by Congress. They have to be effective or they wouldn't be feared by the public the way they are.

But is it necessary? Do we really need a tax code in surplus of 1300 pages? No wonder we fear an audit by the IRS. What if I missed something important on page 1024! There must be a simpler way. I think that we have lost most of our control over tax collection simply because it is too large for us to combat. Senators even seem to have difficulty wrapping their arms around the tax code. (See http://www.trygve.com/taxcode.html)

Rather than modify a broken system, we should throw it out and make a new one. The Founding Fathers understood this. They didn't try to fix the Articles of Confederation, adding complexities and loopholes; instead, they drafted a new Constitution that has lasted generations with little modification.

I believe that we need to simplify tax code and make a system that won't require $11,600,000,000 to enforce. You may have other ideas, and I would love to hear them, but I suggest a sales tax. This is a much fairer form of tax—putting the power back into the hands of the people. A national sales tax would be much easier for the American public to monitor and would equally disperse the load of taxation. The rich would pay more, but only because they spend more and not because the government demands it of them. Sales tax is equal across the board leaving no group unequally treated.

As an added bonus you won't need to fear an IRS audit: you can start worrying about more important things now.

Sources:
IRS: www.gao.gov/new.items/d07719t.pdf
US INCOME: http://www.startribune.com/business/11217101.html