It isn't just getting bigger, YN. The rate of growth is ACCELERATING. At its most recent rate of growth, it is doubling every 8 years.
I'm not disagreeing that the code is too complex. But the CCH Federal Tax Register is
not the federal tax system. It's a cumulative history (everything that's
ever been part of the tax record) including CCH's own commentary on all this. It also includes tax court cases which do increase every year because the population increases every year. So the tax code is
not 60,000 pages!
Again, I think the code is too complicated. If you want a summary of how it grown, there is a report
here. It includes this graph:
The tax SYSTEM consists of far more than the IRC. If you don't believe that, try to defend yourself in tax court by saying that you followed the IRC strictly, but ignored treasury dept rulings and IRS regs. It won't wash. Anyone who does fairly sophisticated tax returns will tell you that they have to reference more than just the IRC to make sure that they are in compliance.
If you want to quibble over whether CCH's commentaries should be included or not, I don't have strong feelings either way. My guess is that they comprise a small part of the 60,000 pps that they calculate anyway. It really isn't worth taking the time to research to me.
The point of all this is that the rapid growth in complexity, which is getting worse as the years go by, is strong evidence that the notion of defining taxable income in a stable and consistent manner, which is what the change to an income tax was based on in 1913, is simply not achievable. The longer we wait to acknowledge the obvious, the more difficult the adjustment is going to be.