“Also note that the current IT, FICA & Medicare legislation was built in a day. The FT code page count is likely to be expanded greatly over the years. That’s what we have a full time (cough, cough) Congress for!”
The FT probably will be expanded prior to its passage; however, its sponsors will fight to minimize that. The plan, for example, is to pass it out of Ways and Means as a closed bill; no amendments may be offered on the floor of the house.
Treasury will, no doubt, have to issue clarifications prior to implementation. I suspect the entire “system” will be more than the current bill language of less than 150 pages. It will probably end up being between 500 and 1,000 pages (including Treasury’s clarifications) by the time the system is ready to roll out.
CCH currently counts the entire tax system at more than 66,000 pages - and that was the number at the end of 06. I would say a simplification on the order of magnitude of more than 98.5% is worth doing.
The FT legislation will probably be amended/expanded after its passage. Likely annually. Since there needs to be close cooperation withn the States, there is likely quite a bit to be done by the 50 States (+ DC, PR, and other entities) that should be counted in the total.