Posted on 04/10/2013 6:30:44 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Do you think you receive fair value for the money you spend on taxes? The fact is you don’t, because there is excessive corruption in both the way your tax money is collected and in the way it is spent. Many countries are notorious for the tax collectors being “on the take.” At the federal level, it is rare for an Internal Revenue Service agent to put his hand out, but that does not rule out considerable corruption.
The corruption starts with Congress. Members of Congress “buy votes” by handing out “free stuff.” It includes expenditures on programs that few, if any, congressmen would spend their own money on, plus programs that are filled with waste and fraud that go on year after year (e.g., studies have shown that Medicare and Medicaid misspend up to a third of their budgets). Members of Congress also buy campaign contributions by proposing and voting for expenditures that reward certain companies, industries, and unions Solyndra and the General Motors bailout come to mind. This kind of buying of votes and campaign contributions goes on in most democracies. The United States may be the world’s leader in vote and contribution buying through special provisions in the tax code.
It is not hard to figure out why the members of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, the two tax-writing committees, tend to receive much larger campaign contributions than others who sit on less influential committees.
According to the National Taxpayer Advocate, there are now 4 million words in the tax code: “Individuals and businesses spend about 6.1 billion hours each year doing their taxes and complying with the tax laws that’s the equivalent of more than 3 million full-time workers.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
It is well beyond the ability of any one or even a group of individuals to fully know the tax code and attendant regulations. In addition, all too much of it is imprecise, contradictory, beyond common sense and poorly written. Every presidential candidate promises to reform and simplify the tax code.
BUT NOTHING EVER GETS DONE. EVERY YEAR, THE TAX CODE GETS MORE AND MORE COMPLICATED AND THE IRS GETS MORE AND MORE POWER TO INVADE OUR PRIVACY.
Here’s how it’s done folks ( it’s like how the traffic cops get incentives for ticketing you either via moving or parking violation )....
IRS executives and staffers get high marks and promotions by collecting more taxes, so they have a natural bias against the taxpayers and, at times, engage in both unethical and economically destructive conduct.
For instance, the IRS taxes the portion of capital gains that are completely due to inflation. Someone who has had a small farm or small business for several decades may sell it for twice what was paid for it, but after adjusting for inflation may have incurred a real loss.
Yet, the IRS will place a tax on the nominal gain, not the real gain. Without due process, this is prohibited by the Constitution and is nothing less than theft of property.
As for the taxpayers....
As long as the American people think that they have a decent life in the US, they'll continue to live with the pain. As long as the pain intensity doesn't change abruptly people won't notice — “frog in warm water.”
RE: A lot of people would lose their jobs if the tax laws were simplified.
This is simply another variation of the “broken windows” economic fallacy.
Break more windows and you create more jobs for window makers.
Breaking windows stimulates the economy they say because it means more jobs for window and window component makers.
19th century economist Bastiat points out that further analysis exposes the fallacy.
By breaking the window, the vandal has reduced the window owner’s disposable income, meaning the owner will not be able purchase new shoes or some other luxury good.
Thus, the broken window might help the glazier, but at the same time, it robs other industries and reduces the amount being spent on other goods. Moreover, replacing something that has already been purchased is a maintenance cost, rather than a purchase of truly new goods, and maintenance doesn’t stimulate production.
In short, Bastiat suggests that destruction - and its costs - don’t pay in an economic sense.
Same principle applies on a larger scale to the tax code.
You create jobs for lawyers, paper shufflers, accountants and government workers but ignore the EFFECT on PRODUCERS and BUSINESSMEN at large.
What you rob in this case is TIME and MONEY that would otherwise be spent on producing things, services and goods that people want or need and will buy.
There are actual analytical estimates of the time and money that is put into complying with the tax code.
It’s an enormous drag on the economy.
Americans spend 6.1 billion hours every year attempting to comply with the internal revenue code, at a monetary cost of about $168 billion. Due to the complexity of the tax system, 59% of individual tax payers hire tax preparers to complete their returns while another 30% of individual tax payers pay for software to facilitate their tax returns. The average taxpayer spends about $258 dollars in out of pocket expense to comply plus about 18 hours of time.
Very well said! And in simple terms too. Thanks!
How about this: The home owner is forced or strongly encouraged to replace a perfectly good window to stimulate the economy. Then, at additional expense, the unbroken window is smashed so that it can’t be reused because it is not the double pane energy efficient window which is more expensive. The problem: most people can’t afford the double pane windows and now they don’t have any windows at all.
Sports keeps them dull and immature.
We have all the power we need to stop any government activity — welfare, foreign aid, bailouts, abortion. When we meekly go on paying income taxes, out of fear, we are paying a protection racket so it will permit us to continue to work and live.
And when we do that we permit the racketeers, the criminals, and the tyrants to continue to work and live.
It’s that simple. They don’t care what you type, as long as you pay your taxes.
Tyrant Kim Un Hussein must be very pleased that his efforts to “FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” are progressing so easily.
My dad had lived in the Soviet Union underStalin and Nazi Germany and feared the IRS more...
We know the problem. What is the solution? Ignorant public and corrupt politicians/government make it next to impossible.
RE: We know the problem. What is the solution?
A tax code that DIMINISHES the power of the IRS.
Investments
Ya. We’ll all be taking drugs soon whether we want to or not.
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