Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Taxing system


After just finishing my Nth (too many to count) tax season, its time to sit back and hear the predictable chorus of how unfair our taxing regime is and how it punishes successful people and the middle class while rewarding the wealthy. In fact, a recent study of International tax systems by German economists rated the U.S. 94th out of 100. At least we beat Venezuela!

While most reasonable people will agree that some form of tax system is essential to modern society, that’s about where the commonality ends. There are those who feel that a flat tax system, or a national sales tax, or higher rates for the wealthy, or lower rates for the wealthy, or some other variant, would all be better than our present system. A column in yesterday’ s OC Register discussed how the capital gains tax break  is purportedly counter-productive and unfairly favors the wealthy. There is no shortage of ideas as to how to fix our tax system, but I submit to you that the system may not be the problem. I believe it is the administrator (government) that is the problem.

The Lord ’s Prayer is 56 words long.  The Gettysburg Address is 226 words long. The Ten Commandments are 297 words.  But the Internal Revenue Code? FOUR MILLION WORDS LONG.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, Congress isn’t the solution, it is the problem.