Significantly Simplifying The U.S. Tax Code, And Other Hopeful Myths

Determining the length of a book is a simple matter . . . just open the back cover and look at the last page for the answer. Not so with the U.S. tax code, apparently. Google the question, "How many pages in the tax code?" Many answers appear. It could be as many as 75,000 pages, or just a few percentage points of that number, depending on who is answering the question and the motive for obtaining your acceptance of the answer. However, according to an official IRS site (see link below) regardless of the number of pages or words, the code is unbelievably confusing . . . even to so-called experts. And consider the following statement, "The hardest thing in the world to understand is income taxes."--Albert Einstein What got me going on this subject is the promise made by virtually all presidential contestants, and many others running for elective office in jurisdictions nationwide, to reduce the size of the tax code, thereby making it easy for taxpayers to comply with their financial obligation to their government. Some persuasive solutions suggest the tax code could and should be written in just a handful of pages . . . or even confined to the few lines available on the back of a post card. It sounds good to voting taxpayers. But will it happen? Who decides if it happens is the critical issue . . . and the question you should consider as you ponder the answer.