A lot of the complexity that adds to tax preparation expense does not even come from what most of us would consider “income”, it comes from capital gains, dividend “income”, interest “income”, etc. For everyone who proposes a flat tax, you are not really solving the problem unless you redefine income to mean “wages” as it was originally intended to mean. I am ashamed to say that I spent over $700 on tax preparation fees this year; my old preparer retired last year (usually spent around $200).
I spent $600 last year and don’t have the bill for this year. I’ve been spending at least $500 for years. National sales tax is what it needed, that way, everybody pays something.
I think you have that exactly backwards.
Wages are not “income” because you have traded your labor for money of exactly the same value.
Capital Gains, Dividends, and Interest are “income” because you put in a certain value and received a higher value in return.
Our income is too low to purchase health insurance (almost all of my wife’s monthly pay would go to premiums) so we didn’t get any form 1095’s. Without 1095’s the tax return has an error. If the tax return has an error you cannot e-file your federal tax return. If you cannot e-file your federal tax form you also cannot e-file your state tax form. If nothing else, the congress needs to sever the link between health insurance and the income tax.