One Look At This Chart, And You'll Instantly Get Why We Can't Fix The Tax Code

Business Insider ^ | 11/22/2012 | Joe Wiesenthal

[SeekAndFind]

Hey, let's just simplify the tax code and eliminate loopholes.

It's hard to think of any statement that on its surface sounds less controversial. Eliminating loopholes means more revenue. Everyone likes simplification. Efficiency!

So why doesn't it happen?

This fantastic chart from Credit Suisse's Neal Soss is the answer. It shows the top 20 biggest "Tax Expenditures" which cost the government over $900 billion in the 2012 fiscal year.

Credit Suisse

So you want to simplify the tax code, what are you going to get rid of?

Are you going to eliminate the incentive to provide employers health insurance? Are you going to get rid of charitable deductions or pension contribution deductions? What about dinging the child credit or mortgage interest? Or how about clipping Social Security benefits for retired workers?

[PGR88]

10% flat tax on all income - corporate, dividend, personal income. No deductions.

[Chuckster]

Forgetting the main reason the tax code will not be simplified: Jobs.

How many accountants and tax preparers would be out of work if a flat tax ever went into effect? Do you seriously think they don’t lobby against a simpler tax code?

[NVDave]

Hence why I now think we need to go to a national retail sales tax.

It would capture more of the underground economy, it would tax imported goods the same as US-made goods, and it would provide more direct economic data on how the economy is doing.

[FatherofFive]

It shows the top 20 biggest "Tax Expenditures" which cost the government over $900 billion in the 2012 fiscal year.

It only 'costs' the government money if you believe in static models and assume that all money is the government's, and we are lucky to keep some of it.

[blam]

The Day The World Ended

[SeekAndFind]

RE: How many accountants and tax preparers would be out of work if a flat tax ever went into effect? Do you seriously think they don’t lobby against a simpler tax code?

I think I see the reasoning here... let’s complicate the tax code even more to create more jobs for accountants, lawyers and the like...

Why not create more complicated government rules so that more jobs will be generated navigating through these rules?

For that matter, why not encourage unruly kids to break more windows so that glass and window makers can have more businesses and hire more glass and window makers?

[gura]

How many horn and string players lost their jobs when the Titanic went down?

[Reddon]

What I really want them to do is STOP SPENDING, DAMMIT! And NOT perpetually trying to figure out ways to get more tax revenue out of the few remaining productive citizens.

[unixfox]

Not to mention the number of IRS employees that would lose their jobs.

Friggin leeches. The whole lot of them.

[Froggie]

Simple...now that the government forces you to provide insurance for employees if you have more than 50, there is no need to use the federal tax code as an incentive for you to do so...so get rid of the tax write off for insurance coverage.
Since the government is going to take care of all your needs there will be no need to donate to charity - so there goes the charity deduction.

They will eliminate the tax deduction for the pension plans AND find a way to tax the gains made within those plans before withdrawal ! Plus likely place a 20% across the board tax on the current value to capture all the ill-gotten gains that weren’t taxed previously.

Mortgage deductions will be capped at some ridiculous amount to “punish” the high earners who have “too expensive” houses. They will also eliminate the mortgage deduction on second homes, because in their utopian society NO ONE needs too houses - and if they do have 2 they should be punished tax-wise.

All monies earned belong to the government anyway - just be glad they “let” you keep a little of what your labor produces - pretty soon John Kerry won’t be able to deduct this yacht maintenance - oh wait, they will exclude themselves from the legislation, just like the Obama-case fiasco.

[paul51]

Fair tax is the plain and simple answer. Get rid of the IRS and all the code. Of course it will never happen. Too many special interests with something to loose

[Mike Darancette]

Are you going to eliminate the incentive to provide employers health insurance?

I think that this is indeed one of the objectives of Obamacare to make coverage mandatory then eliminate the deduction.

[TBP]

Make everyone pay something.

[vette6387]

“How many accountants and tax preparers would be out of work if a flat tax ever went into effect? Do you seriously think they don’t lobby against a simpler tax code?”

You are leaving out all the tax law firms that advertise their availability to “go to bat for you with the IRS.”

[coloradan]

That's how parasites work. One shouldn't be angry at the louse for living in one's hair (although one might want to kill it anyway). One shouldn't be angry at tax professionals either - except that lice don't vote for you to have dandruff, but tax professionals do often vote to make tax laws even more complex, so as to assure themselves a secure future. With a 10 % flat tax, or an NRST, and they all would have to find productive jobs, instead of parasitic jobs.

[arthurus]

Federal Income Tax: Best is 9% of all earned income, no deductions, no exemptions, from the first dollar with no income tax and no income tax on business.
Second best is same with the 9% on business income and maybe even capital gains, too, for "fairness'" sake. With concommitant drastic reduction in business regulations and withdrawal of the gummint from medicine, insurance, welfare, etc., the economy will take off in a steeper curve than heretofore experienced.

[stubernx98]

we need an ammendment to the consitution that says “any legislation, Rule, regulation, tax code, etc., not understood by the average Chicago High School graduate is null and void”

[dragnet2]

If you have income of 50k, after taxes that’s about 32k. Multiply it by 2, divide it by 4 then subtract 16 on form I-B-Stupid. Be sure to check the box marked dumdum, then sign under penalty of perjury.

[bigbob]

All the above.

Fix it (flat tax) - don’t just tinker with it.