GOODNESS, what now? The latest excuse in the IRS mess is that a lone bureau in Cincinnati is to blame. Along with lax supervision. And that’s how the federal government came to target conservative groups with names like Tea Party and Patriot in their names? Really?
O-o-okay. But what does that make this scandal now? Less scandalous? If a handful of clerks at the IRS can dam up a whole flood of paperwork and give hundreds of non-profits (or would-be non-profits) so much trouble, isn’t that reason enough to be outraged? The more explanations the country gets from this administration, the more questions it raises.
Here’s the latest explanation/excuse as reported by the New York Times over the weekend:
“Administering the nearly 4-million word federal tax code involves so many arcane legalities, and is so fraught with potential to ignite Washington’s partisan skirmishes or infuriate taxpayers, that much of the IRS is run by lawyers. But the Exempt Organizations Division-concentrated in Cincinnati with fewer than 200 workers, according to IRS officials-is staffed mostly by accountants, clerks and civil servants . . .”
Hmmmm.
What say we just get rid of that 4-million word federal tax code and start over?
THE AMERICAN people will always have an IRS or something like it with us. (Somebody’s got to collect federal taxes.) But could this scandal finally lead to abolishing the tax code itself?
Hey, we can dream, can’t we?
The reason the country needs all these clerks and lawyers and accountants and civil servants and political appointees in all these IRS offices around the country is because few Americans know the difference between a 501(c)3 group and a 501(c)4 group. So all these IRS employees are there to figure out what’s what and who’s who.
A whole priestly cult has grown up, like kudzu, to translate these laws to the taxpaying masses and interpret the tax code’s arcane commandments, footnotes and special dispensations. And it doesn’t do a very good job at it. Maybe can’t. For how can you explain something simply that isn’t simple at all but rather a hodgepodge of clauses, counter-clauses, purely subjective judgments and foggy misdirection? Call it the U.S. Infernal Revenue Code.
Most of us don’t object to paying taxes. Living in the United States of America is a bargain and a blessing. And the country does need its interstates and aircraft carriers and food inspectors. What so many Americans object to, and should, is how hard, how complicated, how expensive and sometimes how plain hopeless it is to try to calculate how much we owe. Couldn’t it be easier to figure out? Shouldn’t it be?
And please, don’t talk about reform. Every time Congress tries to reform the tax code, it just makes the thing longer and more confusing. At last estimate, 80 percent of Americans have to hire an accountant or buy a computer program to wade through all the arcana-so as not to get sideways with all those clerks and lawyers and accountants at all those IRS offices. And folks may wind up getting bamboozled anyway,especially if they consider themselves patriots, have had anything to do with outfits like the Tea Party (so much for freedom of assembly), or maybe contributed to a presidential candidate whose name wasn’t Barack Obama.
See the case of one Frank L. Vandersloot, a big Romney donor who was not only smeared by the Obama campaign last summer but, for the first time in 30 years, had his tax return audited. The Feds didn’t find anything wrong, but by the time they were through with him, they’d cost him $80,000 in legal fees.
ENOUGH. Why not ditch the tax code and start over? It would make things so much easier for all Americans, rich or poor, Republican or Democrat. And just think of all the useful work this plethora of tax lawyers and tax accountants and tax advisers could be doing if they weren’t needed to divine the meaning, if any, of the federal tax code.
Now that the IRS has tripped and is bogged down in the political mud, this would seem to be the best time to jump on this woolly mammoth of a beast called the Internal Revenue Code and kill it dead. With a single blow.
Every year about April 15th or so, those in the commentariat opine about the possibility of casting off the tax code like a waterlogged coat and freeing the American people from its dead weight. Columnists, politicians and just plain folks complain about the complexity of the current tax code, which keeps being changed and expanded and confused until it finally surpasseth all understanding.
Could it be that this latest outrage has given the country its best chance in years to finally act?
It’s become something of a tradition on this editorial page every April 15th to call for abolishing the federal Internal Revenue Code by some certain date-say, December 31, 2014-and replacing it with a simple, shorter, plainer and even understandable one. It’s a tradition we’d like to have no reason to continue.
So let’s start over. With the IRS all over the front pages, there’s no better time to make a clean start than right now. We may never get this shot again.
Editorial, Pages 16 on 05/23/2013