[PreciousLiberty]

The IRS should be disbanded, and any form of "income tax" should be abolished by constitutional amendment.

A consumption tax is far superior, and one of its best features is removing any requirement for personal information to be supplied to the government. Just imagine the productivity increase associated with no tax preparation across the board!

A free country should not require its citizens to be accountants reporting to the government!

[I am Richard Brandon]

Anyone who says that a tax return on a postcard is possible has a childlike faith in mankind. The argument would move from pages of claimed deductions to pages of claims over what is income.

[RKBA Democrat]

I don’t get why an alleged conservative feels the need to suck up to the IRS.

While I would agree that its unlikely to get rid of all tax colledtors, wonderful an idea as it may be, there are several alternatives. First and foremost being parceling it out to the states, all but a handful of which have their own income tax. It also puts the states in a very favorable position of holding the checkbook. It woould also be a lot easier to administer.

So the author is wrong. Use even the merest amount of creativity you can find several alternatives to the IRS.

[TADSLOS]

IRS Pushback Ping.

[majormaturity]

If the government can print money, why do they need to tax us?

[zeugma]

A "flat" tax will not really do anything to reduce the IRS. The vast majority of the tax code is concerned with creating winners and losers by defining what is and isn't "income".

You can reduce a lot of the complexity by eliminating deductions, but in the end, you'll still have to give up your 4th and 5th amendment rights to file the forms.

The real solution is to pass a constitutional amendment that does 2 things...

1. Repeal the 16th amendment
2. Institute a national sales tax of 10%

Why set the rate in the amendment itself? So it can't be easily changed.

Why 10%? Because God only asks for 10. The government isn't worthy of more support than the Lord.

[Jean2]

How disappointing. I used to enjoy National Review.

[Taxman]

Not only should the IRS be abolished, IT MUST BE ABOLISHED!

America cannot and will not continue as a Republic if income tax is not replaced by the FairTax and the IRS is not abolished!

So long as America has an income tax and an IRS, Americans are slaves!

How much longer are you willing to be a slave?

[xzins]

I take abolishing the IRS to mean ending the current tax code and replacing all with a simple collection agency. If we had only a sales tax, we really would only need a receipts department.

[pluvmantelo]

Patrick Brennan is the opinion editor at National Review.

---

I think I know where NR stands on the Cruz candidacy.

[__rvx86]

At best, the IRS will be abolished, and a new, Constitutionally proper method of collecting revenue will be established.

At worst, the IRS is forced to move into a small office in a strip-mall, as it no longer needs the former tax-enforcement infrastructure.

Either way, the IRS will no longer be a fear among American people.

Cruz or lose

[liberalh8ter]

BS.....I had a discussion with two men a few months back. One had an “abolish the IRS” sticker on his back window and the other is a “tax preparer”. The tax preparer started out with the “unworkable, wrong, sounds nice but impossible” argument while the sticker owner and I proceeded to demolish his arguments. At the end of the conversation, he gave in and admitted if the IRS were to be abolished and a flat tax put in its place, his career would be over and he's too old to start over. Self-serving POS.

[navyguy]

The IRS is an absolutely HORRIBLE, abusive agency. If there is any agency in the US that we should get rid of it’s this one. If we can’t get rid of this one then we can’t get rid of ANY agency.. we can only add more.

And these ‘experts’ are close minded... it IS possible to get rid of the IRS. It’s not axiomatically necessary for the continued operation of Reality. We invented it, we can get rid of it.

[facedown]

... and the IRS is well regarded internationally.

So is Fidel Castro.

[Yaelle]

Should I even keep reading? I came to the part where tax experts want to keep the IRS.

[Basket_of_Deplorables]

So we abolish 99% of it.

He's my guy!!!

[sitetest]

This attacks the wrong end of the beast.

We have a complex tax code because we collect a lot of taxes.

We collect a lot of money in taxes because we spend it on a too-large government.

Cut the size of government (a lot), and some of this problem will fix itself.