[irish_lad]

The IRS doesn't write the law, Congress does. Pray for a Republican congress after the election, and we may finally get some reform.

Not entirely true. The IRS's lawyers write large sections of the tax code based upon legislation committee meetings and final law language. Very few in Congress understand the language of the tax code. Even with the Republicans, it's the same old stuff.

Policy is so integrated with the tax law that I just don't see the tax code becoming much simpler.

[CobaltBlue]

The hardest part about the tax code is reading it, and the hardest part about reading it is putting all the sections side-by-side because (picking numbers at random here) 412 references 411 but 411 doesn't reference 412. It's a quagmire.

Well, actually the hardest part is paying the taxes, nobody likes that. But we gotta do it.

So, wish they'd make it easier to figure out. I am a lawyer, had a couple of tax courses in law school, do my own taxes, but not for anybody else. No, no, no.

I don't trust anybody to do mine because if they screw up I am the one who is liable. So I use Quickbooks and TurboTax and that seems to work pretty good.