Published: April 24, 2006 02:55 pm         

Looking at tax alternatives for next year

EDMOND — How much of your time and money did you spend getting your taxes filed this year? Your time is worth something even if you use a software program to do your taxes. Your time is worth something gathering up all the information to give to your hired tax preparer.

Multiply that by the number of taxpayers and corporate taxpayers and you can plainly see how much a burden our current tax code is on the taxpayers of America.

You can get mad, just like I do each middle of April, but the inevitable has to occur. Did you know that a portion of our tax money goes to pay the salary of some 113,000 IRS employees? What a large number of employees. Yet, it probably takes that many employees to administer the thousands of pages of tax code.

A 2001 press release from Sen. Chuck Grassley indicated that 51 percent of the hours IRS employees spent on the Internet were for personal usage; some 47 percent of the e-mails sent to the IRS were personal; that 25 percent of taxpayers calls to the IRS went unanswered; during the 2001 filing season, an Inspector General employee made contacts at walk-in assistance sites and seven times they were denied service, got incorrect answers 49 percent of the time and insufficient answers 24 percent of the time. Calling the toll-free assistance line found no one could be reached 37 percent of the time and did not receive the requested service 47 percent of the time. Finally, it was determined that in fiscal year 2000, the IRS spent $1.3 billion for contractors to the IRS. While that is an older release, it is clear taxpayers are not getting what they are paying for. The IRS is a failure by any measure.

All this caused me to seek a better method of delivering my money for the federal government to use. Obviously, the current method eats up too many resources that could be better used by our government. I found there has been a bill filed by Rep. John Linder as H.R. 25 (see his Web site http://linder.house.gov).

Here’s a brief overview of The Fair Tax Act: “1. Repeals all corporate and individual income taxes, payroll taxes, self-employment taxes, capital gains taxes, estate taxes and gift taxes. 2. Imposes a revenue-neutral personal consumption tax on all new goods and services at the point of final purchase. Business-to-business transactions and used products, which have already been taxed, are not subject to the sales tax. 3. Rebates the sales tax on all spending up to the poverty level.

“Results of the FairTax: Dramatically reduce the costs of goods and services by 20 to 30 percent. Allows you to keep 100 percent of your paycheck, pension and Social Security payments. Gross Domestic Product will increase by almost 10.5 percent in the first year after enactment. Compliance costs would decrease by 90 percent. Real investment would initially increase by 76 percent relative to the investment that would be made under present law.

“While this increase would gradually decline, it remains 15 percent higher than under the existing tax structure. Exports would increase by 26 percent initially and would remain more than 13 percent above the level under the current tax system. Real wages will increase. Increases incentives to work by as much as 20 percent in many households, leading to higher economic growth and efficiency. Interest rates will fall 25 to 35 percent.”

This is a much better choice than our current method. Any change has to be better than we have now. Since lobbyists have been partially responsible for the convoluted tax code we now have, getting this passed may be a challenge. It seems to me that taxation based on spending is more fair than any other method. If you don’t spend, you don’t pay.

Take a look at the Fair Tax Web site for answers to all your questions, http://www.fairtax.org/. I found many articles about how the tax would work in detail, and how this tax proposal handles families at or below the poverty level. It appears about every question or issue is addressed in the Fair Tax legislation. Being responsible to properly fill out several pages of forms just plain stinks.

In today’s world, we need and deserve a better method, a more efficient method. Gains in efficiency alone will be a great benefit. Eliminating paperwork, employees and delivering that money to the federal coffers more efficiently is an idea that is over due.

We must eliminate the IRS as we know it today. We are too modern an economy and people to continue to be burdened by antiquated tax methods that favor some and not others. We need fairness in our taxation. The FairTax is that method.

A final point is made by Yahoo News: “Sen. Ron, D-Ore., did not prepare his real tax returns, but he was able to prepare a hypothetical tax return in 30 minutes based on his proposed simplified tax system. This last fact is truly revolutionary because no one can remember the last time a member of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee actually completed their own tax return.” Need I say more?

Just as people marched over pending immigration law, if we marched over taxation, we can assure a change will occur. Our politicians need a loud roar from the taxed to change what is being done. When you have a method of taxation that makes you pay a penalty for paying too little or too much, you know something has to be done.

Everyone should pay their fair share. But that share should not be wasted on bureaucracy and paperwork.

Let your representatives in Washington know how you feel. If you don’t, we will be filling out the same pages of forms this time next year. Remember, it is up to us to see that they get it right.

(Bob O’Bar can be contacted at rto4nmm@sbcglobal.net.)

     

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