Sure, I'll play along.
Weston White wrote:Agreed, I would have only two questions for them, would they support replacing all of the various tax forms with a postcard?"
I guess that would depend on what the postcard looks like. In general, I am all for simplifying the tax code. Problem is the current tax returns need to be able to make sure that all different types of income, deductions, and credits are captured in a tax return. I think that the tax system could and should be simple enough that a person making less than $150k per year should be able to do their taxes in an hour on a "postcard-like" tax form. I think it's pretty sad when so many people have to pay someone to do their taxes for them, and this is coming from a CPA.
I would be very happy if we had the political will to eliminate all kinds of deductions and credits, especially eliminating the exemption for muni interest, eliminating the state and local tax deduction, and greatly limiting the home mortgage interest deduction. If we did all that we would be able to get rid of the AMT and all the complexity that comes with that, and lower all of the marginal rates quite a bit. Problem is I don't see that coming anytime soon.
Would they support the change of letting the IRS just bill us directly? Their answer would expose
the truth of the matter.
I don't know what truth this is exposing, and I'm not sure I understand what exactly Richard is asking, but I would not be in favor of the IRS just billing people for their taxes. The voluntary compliance system in this country has worked for years and can still work in the future. My philosophy is that the government should almost always be doing less, not more.
The problem with our tax system isn't that the IRS isn't billing people directly, it's that the tax code is so damn complex and convoluted that people can't figure it out easily.
And the quote of the day goes to Viking for their well thought out retort: "But who else besides a bunch of CPAs and Lawyer hacks would sit around and support such a misunderstanding of the Income Tax." You win five Liberty Dollars for your well thought out response!
Not even sure what the hell that's supposed to mean. I am all for changing and simplifying the tax code. However, I am not going to apologize for one second about helping my clients understand the tax system and being compensated a fair fee for doing so. Me personally, I work almost entirely with business taxes, consulting, and assurance. If everyone in the country didn't have to fill out a 1040 ever again, my career would feel very little impact. A good CPA has to be able to adapt to constantly changing laws, regulations, and standards. It's the nature of our business.
You want a good example of someone that unjustly enriches themselves based on peoples' confusion about the tax code? Look no further than your buddy Pete Hendrickson.