Senator Wyden: Tax code can be made less taxing

[ProSense]

Tax code can be made less taxing

By SEN. RON WYDEN

President Barack Obama has challenged Congress to do something it hasn’t done in 25 years: reform the federal tax code.

It’s no small thing.

The tax code is filled with hundreds of tax breaks and loopholes, each fought for and backed by special-interest groups determined to keep them. Given the recent, highly partisan tax debates, it is hard to imagine Democrats and Republicans coming together to write one bill. But I share the president’s optimism that it can be done.

First, it has been done before. In 1986, a Democratic House majority joined forces with President Ronald Reagan and a Republican-led Senate to overhaul the federal tax code. There was no precedent for that coalition, but there is one today.

Joining forces against special interests, Democrats and Republicans sent the president sweeping bipartisan legislation that eliminated numerous tax breaks and loopholes to streamline the code and hold down rates for everyone, without any additional government spending.

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Politifact: Americans spend 6.1 billion hours a year complying with tax law. It costs us $163 billion to comply with our tax laws annually.

Center for Tax Justice: Revenue-Positive Reform of the Corporate Income Tax (PDF)

The tax code needs to be made more fair for individuals too.

[ProSense]

1. No comment? n/t

[Sherman A1]

2. I recall the last time they revised the tax code

and I recall getting screwed.

Thanks.... I will pass.

[ProSense]

3. They need to do something

because it's unwieldy, unfair and unproductive, including the individual tax code. It can be made more fair and revenue producing.

[PoliticAverse]

4. Considering they wouldn't let tax cuts for higher income Americans expire...

what gives you realistic hope taxes can go up on higher income Americans now?

[ProSense]

5. Maybe

because people are outraged?

[PoliticAverse]

6. In Egypt maybe...

But any outrage in the US didn't seem to make it possible
for tax cuts on higher income Americans to expire even when
Democrats had the House a short time ago, so I'm rather skeptical
about taxes on higher income Americans going up now.

The last big tax reform was under Reagan, and it was because he was
able to get people fired up and put pressure on their representatives
to support change. Unless Obama can do that as well, I don't see major
change happening.

[ProSense]

7. "The last big tax reform was under Reagan, and it was because he was

able to get people fired up and put pressure on their representatives
to support change."


Pretty sure there are enough people who believe it possible and will back the President's call to get it done. Obviously, Wyden is on board.

[Sherman A1]

10. Yes, they do need to do something and I saw your

thread when it was posted earlier. I simply do not trust this group to do anything that benefits the workers of this country, so I will take the devil I know vs the one I do not.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. I support the idea of a cleaner tax code

And I'm even going to point out that this is not exactly about 'the rich paying more' it is about the hope for simplification of a system now featuring complexity that is bad for everybody but those who are armed with Tax Attorneys, ie the rich.
The complexity of the tax code not only serves the rich, it is a danger to anyone without endless cash to spend defending yourself against the Red Queen's Court that is the IRS.

[customerserviceguy]

9. With TurboTax for free

the arithmetic complexity of taxes is a bogus issue. It's the loopholes, stupid! (Not calling you stupid, just referring to a Clinton-era slogan.)

[Bluenorthwest]

12. Not one word in the OP about complex arithmetic, not one.

Because the issue is about the complexity of the code, the various breaks and loopholes, as well as the state of complexity itself. Deal with this. I have rarely prepared my own taxes, and yet the complexity has been a huge burden on my business life. Other people did the 'arithmetic'. The math is so very much not the issue here. Not even a part of it.

[davidpdx]

11. Wyden is one of my senators

I fully support the idea of making the tax code less complicated and closing loopholes used by the rich. The earned income credit, which you discussed in another thread should be part of that helping the working poor.