Subject: Individuals Request for Comments Comment: Response to request for comments by the Federal Tax Reform Panel on Feb. 16, 2005 Minghu Sheila Yao 1332 Stoneybrook Drive Tucker, GA 30084 sheila_yao2000@yahoo.com Feb. 28, 2005 Individual Submission to Federal Tax Reform Panel Preparing taxes is such a ridiculous and costly burden on us and it should be replaced. My parents are in their 70s (Elizabeth Wang and Edison Yao, Stone Mountain, GA 30083) and retired. In 2004, my mother was given 3 shares of stock options by her former company that she must sell in order to get the money. She did that but later found out to her dismay that the tax laws for this stock selling deal is so complicated that she couldn’t find any volunteers who are knowledgeable enough to prepare tax for her. As a result, she had to pay over $100 dollars to get her tax done by a professional accountant. This is completely ridiculous and unfair that she paid more to prepare the tax than she gained from selling the stocks. And the current income tax is abused and distorted by different groups and segments of society to their own advantages. For example, if you are a teacher, you don’t have to pay taxes on the money used to purchase books etc. If teacher don’t have to pay taxes on money used for books, computer programmers don’t have to pay taxes on money used for computers, trucker drivers don’t have to pay taxes on money used for trucks, race car drivers don’t have to pay taxes on money used for race cars, politicians don’t have to pay taxes on money used for campaigns (just kidding) as it is obvious that all those expenses are all job related. And this makes the tax system unfair and cumbersome, a heaven for lobbyists of different groups. A consumption tax system is fair. By nature, it taxes heavily on people who use more resources. And my mother doesn’t have to pay accountants to prepare any taxes and she can sell her 3 shares of stocks and keep the little ‘capital gains’ that she has. And racecar drivers pay more taxes on racecars than teachers on books. |