With the deadline for tax filing coming up on Monday, it's time to take our annual look at tax facts, such as: Middle-class taxpayers use tax loopholes far more than the rich do. In 2005, the federal government took $2.4 trillion out of the pockets of the American people, about the same as the size of the entire U.S. economy in 1959 in inflation-adjusted terms. About three-fifths of Americans think their taxes are too high:
Support for fundamental tax reform is high. Four-fifths of taxpayers believe that the tax system is too complex. Just 3 percent believe the tax system is fine the way it is. By better than a two-to-one margin, taxpayers would be willing to give up major tax deductions, such as that for mortgage interest or state and local taxes, in order to get lower income tax rates.
Bring on the flat tax. no matter what Mitt Romney says. This guy's a Republican?
Comments
As a former Treasury Department employee, I can truthfully say it's even more complex than people realize (on the internal levels).
I (among others) was privy to such goings-on as knowing the supervisors had to meet their production quotas at ALL costs ("loosing" tax forms in the drop ceilings) and would "pad" expenditures to ensure more money for their budget the following year, field agents with posters in their offices that proudly proclaimed "Seizure Fever...Catch It", and an inexcusable plethora of gross tax evasions that were "diverted" from the investigative unit (QRDT) for God knows what reasons.
The IRS is one area of government that has WAY more autonomy with so little accountability, it's downright scary.
That's why I left...I still have a conscience...and I like to sleep at night.
B.G.