Subject: Simplification Comment: Ladies and Gentlemen of the panel: Whatever kind of new tax system is devised, please just bear this in mind: citizens and businesspeople should not require professional assistance from lawyers and accountants just to uphold one of the basic responsibilities of citizenship. To be truly fair and non-regressive, the tax system must be made simple enough that any American with a 6th-grade education can do their income taxes unassisted. My personal suggestion is a flat-rate income tax of 22% that exempts the first $40,000 of income. It would work like this: 1. Enter total income. 2. Subtract $40,000. 3. Multiply this number by 0.22. 4. Pay this amount. We don't need to hire security guards to ride in our cars with us in order to make us wear our seat belts. Similarly, we should not need to hire lawyers or accountants to file our tax returns. Thank you for your time and consideration. Best regards, Michael Clabough |