Subject: IRS Tax Code Comment: It is an incredible shame & waste of a Government's resources when 59% of taxpayers (66 million people I believe) pay to have their taxes calculated by another individual. It is not only an embarassment, but also shows the world that we are letting the lobbyists of tax preparers, accountants, and tax attorneys control and destroy the country. I prepare my taxes myself. I file a 1040 with schedules a/b/d/e, and usually 2 or 3 other forms for credits. I own 1 residential house, one rental property, and some stocks. It takes me about 40 hours to calculate the federal and state tax together. One of the longest time consumptions is working through the tax "work sheets" (child credit, cap gains, etc) and investigating the comments on 1040 such as "if you believe you xxx, then see pub. xxx" The first improvement is true separation between chuch and state: get the Federal Government out of the marriage business. In Britain in 1997, (and probably today) a single person paid the same as a married person. It is my understanding that the early Government became involved in marriage to test for syphilis. We need to relegate marriage to the bar mitvah/first communion level, tracked by the religious groups/churches. Second we need to eliminate these many, many tax credits, shelters, deductions and their forms, including the home mortagage deduction. Why, the customer generated salaries alone from these tax preparers, accountants, and tax attorneys would compensate for any perceived increase in taxes, and probably pay the interest on the national debt. Depreciation should not be allowed. It has lead to the incredible housing bubble that we are experiencing now. Real Estate Depreciation deduction can be compared to taking out the basis of your purchased stock (security) from your taxes as the price of the stock rises/appreciates. To help end this Tax Code Absurdity, I hope to have the time to run for congress, at least at the state level, next year. |