Subject: Individual Submission Comment: Sincerely, Carl Carl Olsen 763-509-0706 (Home 612-940-1974 (Cell 763-383-0673 (Fax-Call before you send mailto:co9999@sprynet.com Response to request for comments by the Federal Tax Reform Panel on Feb. 16, 2005. Individual submission Carl Olsen 14300-48th Ave. North Plymouth, MN 55446 763-509-0706 co9999@sprynet.com April 26, 2005 Dear Chairman Mack and Tax Reform Panel members, Too few Americans participate fully in funding our government. Too many citizens pay too little or pay nothing at all. Many taxpayers cannot afford the army of tax attorneys to find their way through the mountain of IRS regulations. I am currently unemployed; doing part time work and my tax preparation cost was $150.00 this past year. Many citizens don't care to participate in paying taxes at all. Drug dealers, illegal immigrants, citizens of the underground economy and anybody else that doesn't care to file a form 1040 are, for most practical purposes, free to avoid paying taxes. Tax enforcement is spotty at best. The ones most subject to audit are the ones that are paying the freight to begin with: • The IRS agents won't pick a fight with that bevy of tax attorneys that know more about the tax code than they do. • They won't go after the low-income cheaters. That would be very politically incorrect and not worth the effort. • They won't go after the underground economy or drug dealers. Too hard to make the case. • They won't go after illegal immigrants. Cases are too time-consuming, almost impossible to make and really not worth the effort. • The middle class taxpayer is their easiest target. IRS agents pick apart the best efforts of earnest (and not-too-earnest) taxpayers and take them to task. The upshot is that out of about 280,000,000 Americans, only about 80,000,000 pay taxes. Cheating among the 80 million leaves even fewer of us to actually pay for government. That's unfair. We all live here. We should all participate in funding our government. Please consider the Fair Tax Plan, HR 25 / S 25. The consumption tax it proposes eliminates all the unfairness. It allows for everybody to participate in the process. It's only fair. Thank you. Carl Olsen |