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IRS Tax Advocate Calls for a Tax Code Overhaul

cpwill

cpwill

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Hey... this sounds like.... what Republicans have been proposing!


Lawmakers need to overhaul the tax code completely to reduce the “significant, even unconscionable, burden” placed on taxpayers just to file a tax return, the Internal Revenue Service’s ombudsman told Congress on Wednesday.

In her legally required annual report to Congress, the national taxpayer advocate, Nina E. Olson, estimated that individuals and businesses spend about 6.1 billion hours a year complying with tax-filing requirements. That adds up to the equivalent of more than three million full-time workers, or more than the number of jobs on the entire federal government’s payroll...
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Buuuuuut, I bet we wooooon't....
 
Typical conservative, put 3 million people out of work, and then start bitching about why our unemployment is so high. You know, if you are going to cut out all the busywork people have we are going to have to accept socialism and less work hours much sooner than you wish for.
 
tererun said:
Typical conservative, put 3 million people out of work, and then start bitching about why our unemployment is so high. You know, if you are going to cut out all the busywork people have we are going to have to accept socialism and less work hours much sooner than you wish for.
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Thread is about tax policy.
 
Given the fact that the IRS employs about a bazillion people who might lose their jobs at a number that would probably drive unemployment numbers higher than the Great Depression era. Nope, they ain't gonna do it. Huge employment drop in the IRS...would most likely effect untold numbers of jobs in other government agencies...and who knows how it would effect the private sector, but I bet we'd quickly find out.

As they say, "The toe bone is connected to the foot bone. The foot bone is lodged firmly in the asses of the American people." Uhhhhh, I think that's how it goes.
 
I don't get it, so now the argument is not on the savings from closing loopholes but from saving people time on doing their taxes?

I agree that the tax return process should be more user-friendly and efficient, but this argument is just silly.
 
cpwill said:
Hey... this sounds like.... what Republicans have been proposing!

Buuuuuut, I bet we wooooon't....
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Between me, Tom, my mother and her forever-friend, we spend $850 getting our taxes done. My mom ends up paying no income tax, but she pays $150 to find that out. Her forever friend? The same. The tax forms are ludicrous.

The IRS ombudsman is right. Fix it.

And you're right. We won't.
 
Khayembii Communique said:
I don't get it, so now the argument is not on the savings from closing loopholes but from saving people time on doing their taxes?

I agree that the tax return process should be more user-friendly and efficient, but this argument is just silly.
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Forget the time, although time is money in business. Ever wonder how much money business spends calculating their taxes? We have an entire industry built around the fact that our tax code is a joke. And keep in mind she's only talking about federal, throw in state, county and local on top. It's a jobs killer.
 
MaggieD said:
Between me, Tom, my mother and her forever-friend, we spend $850 getting our taxes done. My mom ends up paying no income tax, but she pays $150 to find that out. Her forever friend? The same. The tax forms are ludicrous.

The IRS ombudsman is right. Fix it.

And you're right. We won't.
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Forget fix it, it's beyond fixing. Scrap it and start over.
 
cpwill said:
Thread is about tax policy.
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Yes, and what are the results of an overhaul going to be? More people unemployed. Sorry you don't like that unemployment IS indeed part of this thread, but I'm guessing if you don't like it you can go pound sand. Enjoy your sandbox :2wave:
 
Khayembii Communique said:
I don't get it, so now the argument is not on the savings from closing loopholes but from saving people time on doing their taxes?

I agree that the tax return process should be more user-friendly and efficient, but this argument is just silly.
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Personally, I'd just like to see the major tax preparing business, put out of business.
If anything is an unethical operation, it's them.
 
So...our resident liberals are now more interested in saving jobs?

What a crock!!

These hypocritical demagogues will stoop to any level of idiocy to advance their big government agenda.
 
TheNextEra said:
Yes, and what are the results of an overhaul going to be? More people unemployed. Sorry you don't like that unemployment IS indeed part of this thread, but I'm guessing if you don't like it you can go pound sand. Enjoy your sandbox :2wave:
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can't join you in the pity party for tax accountants and tax attorneys who would be without work if a simple tax system were to be implemented
 
gingern44 said:
Forget the time, although time is money in business. Ever wonder how much money business spends calculating their taxes? We have an entire industry built around the fact that our tax code is a joke. And keep in mind she's only talking about federal, throw in state, county and local on top. It's a jobs killer.
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Jobs aren't killed. Do you think the people getting paid to do their taxes are unemployed or something?

Besides, regardless of what the government does with the tax code, businesses will still outsource this process, for obvious reasons.
 
justabubba said:
can't join you in the pity party for tax accountants and tax attorneys who would be without work if a simple tax system were to be implemented
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All I was doing is pointing out the fact it would put even more people in the unemployment line and it would increase it quite a bit.
 
Khayembii Communique said:
Jobs aren't killed. Do you think the people getting paid to do their taxes are unemployed or something?
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Do you think they will all just magically find new jobs in an economy that we have such a high unemployment rate already?
 
TheNextEra said:
Do you think they will all just magically find new jobs in an economy that we have such a high unemployment rate already?
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What? I'm saying that the OP's argument is dumb because the tax industry is an industry, i.e. jobs, by definition not a "job killer".
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
Personally, I'd just like to see the major tax preparing business, put out of business.
If anything is an unethical operation, it's them.
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Unethical? No. They're the free market expression of the consequences of a complicated tax system.

I wouldn't mind them becoming obsolete either.
 
Deuce said:
Unethical? No. They're the free market expression of the consequences of a complicated tax system.
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It was entirely unethical, imo.

Actually the vast majority of the taxes they file, in my experience (I worked for one of them once), are 1040ez and 1040a in the under $50k crowd.
No deductions other than the standard, EITC and child tax credits.

For federal, it should of been free, the IRS allows a subsidy to those people.
They weren't complicated in the least.

Deuce said:
I wouldn't mind them becoming obsolete either.
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At least we agree on something. :)
 
cpwill said:
Hey… this sounds like… what Republicans have been proposing!
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… except for one small but incredibly important detail, not lowering the rates so far that revenue would be less AND/OR a sizable amount of revenue load would transfer from the top end downwards.

Clearing out a wide path of the clutter that has built up? A cracker idea! Using it as cover for further screwing the deficit and the sliding tax load downward? Not so much.
 
tererun said:
That is what you are saying. I know you may not like it, but the effect of simplifying the tax code would be to put many people out of work. You have to plan for that.
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yep
tax attorneys and tax accountants can wash dishes, mow lawns or something else that is (finally) productive

and the IRS revenue agents can kiss my ass

that's the plan
 
tererun said:
That is what you are saying. I know you may not like it, but the effect of simplifying the tax code would be to put many people out of work. You have to plan for that.
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So we should keep a system that is beyond the comprehension of the average intelligent adult including most IRS agents, so people can keep their jobs. And it wouldn't eliminate all the jobs, but a good portion, while making the tax system understandable.

I just cannot fathom that thinking.....
 
GottaGo said:
So we should keep a system that is beyond the comprehension of the average intelligent adult including most IRS agents, so people can keep their jobs. And it wouldn't eliminate all the jobs, but a good portion, while making the tax system understandable.

I just cannot fathom that thinking.....
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if this much tax law is good for employment, then doubling that must be better, right?
 
tererun said:
That is what you are saying. I know you may not like it, but the effect of simplifying the tax code would be to put many people out of work. You have to plan for that.
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Well I suggest it is worth pursuing. Even if it involved relocating everyone to a different busywork job, which you would have to work really hard at to screw it up that badly, it would still be a small net positive. “Oh no, this might involve having some sort of plan and some effort” is a very poor excuse for not moving on with progress.
 
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