Subject: Tax Reform Comment: To the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform I appreciate the opportunity to offer my comments on this very important issue. I have been using Turbo Tax by Intuit for as many years as it has been available to complete my federal and state tax returns. I have no confidence that I could complete my taxes without software and a computer and have the final return look anything like the Turbo Tax output. Please note that I have an MBA and have spent a lot of time in my career and retirement with tax issues. I think that on a national level there is much wasted time in the effort to comply with the tax code requirements for federal reporting. I do not have the resources to estimate the national costs of compliance. I also believe that the purpose of the federal income tax is to provided monies to run the government and that tax policy should not be favor special groups or interests. The most appropriate tax reform proposal that I have learned of is that put forth by the FairTax.org organization. This proposal provides for a national sales tax on all new goods and services. The taxes are collected by the states and forwarded to the federal government. No one pays taxes up to the poverty level. There would no longer be a need for the IRS. The FairTax plan has support in both the House and Senate. Please support the FairTax.org plan and free the people from the need to prepare annual taxes. Thank You Lawrence E. Schafer |