I used to think this image was a damning indictment of the internal revenue code. Or here’s another chart showing how the tax system has become more convoluted over time.
But this new image may be the most effective of all of them. We don’t know what’s in the other 72,000 pages of tax code, but we’re all familiar with the basic 1040 tax form. Look at what the politicians have done to it over the past several decades.
The only answer, needless to say, is to throw the entire mess in the trash can and replace it with a simple and fair flat tax.
Here’s my brief explanation of how the flat tax would work and why it’s a good idea.
Tax reform would give us more growth, but it also would reduce one of the major source of corruption in Washington.
It’s also based on the notion that discrimination is wrong and that class-warfare policy should be rejected.
So what’s not to like?
P.S. I always get a lot of email and comments from people who wonder whether we should adopt a national sales tax instead. That’s fine with me, for reasons I explain here, but you better make sure to first amend the Constitution so that scheming politicians don’t pull a bait-and-switch and saddle us with both an income tax and a sales tax.
[…] that the tax code is far worse than it was in the past. Perhaps the most compelling evidence is the huge increase in the number of pages needed for the instruction manual for the 1040 tax […]
[…] The number of pages in the 1040 instruction booklet. […]
[…] The number of pages in the 1040 instruction booklet. […]
[…] The number of pages in the 1040 instruction booklet. […]
[…] I want to completely junk our corrupt system and replace it with a simple and fair flat tax. But for 2017, I’ll be happy if we simply slash […]
[…] I want to completely junk our corrupt system and replace it with a simple and fair flat tax. But for 2017, I’ll be happy if we simply […]
[…] Examples include the minimum wage, economic policy, the welfare state, supply-side economics, the tax code, Europe’s fiscal crisis, Social Security reform, demographics, overpaid bureaucrats, […]
[…] P.S. I’m not a big fan of H&R Block. Assuming they didn’t support Obamacare, I don’t blame them for enjoying the extra profits they’ll earn because of the law. But the company has supported government rules to block competition in the tax-compliance industry. And I remember many years ago being part of a debate in Louisiana where a representative from H&R Block argued against the flat tax. Gee, I wonder why? […]
[…] P.S. I’m not a big fan of H&R Block. Assuming they didn’t support Obamacare, I don’t blame them for enjoying the extra profits they’ll earn because of the law. But the company has supported government rules to block competition in the tax-compliance industry. And I remember many years ago being part of a debate in Louisiana where a representative from H&R Block argued against the flat tax. Gee, I wonder why? […]
Dan, you are spot on with this comment:
P.S. I always get a lot of email and comments from people who wonder whether we should adopt a national sales tax instead. That’s fine with me, for reasons I explain here, but you better make sure to first amend the Constitution so that scheming politicians don’t pull a bait-and-switch and saddle us with both an income tax and a sales tax.
I believe that when you don’t rip out a system by the roots, any remnant of that bureaucracy that survives will immediately begin to re-constitute itself and begin lobbying for it’s survival and that’s why I support FairTax!
[…] this depressing chart showing the number of pages in the instruction manual for the IRS’s 1040 tax […]
[…] That’s unquestionably true, as shown by data on the number of pages in the tax code, number of provisions in the tax law, and even by the number of pages in the instruction booklet for the IRS 1040 form. […]
[…] The number of pages in the 1040 instruction booklet. […]
[…] 25 percent of the tax code, which certainly is welcome news since the internal revenue code has swelled to 70,000-plus pages of loopholes, exemptions, deductions, credits, penalties, exclusions, preferences, and other […]
[…] a big fan of the flat tax as a way of neutering the punitive and convoluted internal revenue code in […]
[…] Sounds good, though they also could have mentioned other indicators of nightmarish complexity, such as the number of pages in the tax code, the number of special tax provisions, or the number of pages in the 1040 instruction manual. […]
[…] But you don’t have to believe me, or the reporters at Bloomberg. Here’s the tax computation worksheet for single taxpayers and married taxpayers from the IRS’s 1040 instruction manual (now more than 200-pages long!). […]
[…] But you don’t have to believe me, or the reporters at Bloomberg. Here’s the tax computation worksheet for single taxpayers and married taxpayers from the IRS’s 1040 instruction manual (now more than 200-pages long!). […]
[…] The number of pages in the 1040 instruction booklet. […]
[…] The number of pages in the 1040 instruction booklet. […]
[…] tax code is now a 74,000-page monstrosity, and it seems that politicians make the system more convoluted every year with new credits, deductions, exemptions, preferences, exclusions, and other special provisions. […]
[…] Our tax code is now a 74,000-page monstrosity, and it seems that politicians make the system more convoluted every year with new credits, deductions, exemptions, preferences, exclusions, and other special […]
[…] I’ve complained about the number of pages in the tax code, the number of provisions in the tax code, and I’ve even groused about the rising number of pages in the instruction manual for the 1040 tax form. […]
[…] The number of pages in the 1040 instruction booklet. […]
[…] the flat tax and the sales tax debate. What we’re really debating is how to replace the squalid internal revenue code with something worthy of a great […]
[…] damage is then compounded by a needlessly destructive and punitive tax […]
[…] damage is then compounded by a needlessly destructive and punitive tax […]
[…] a big fan of the flat tax as a way of neutering the punitive and convoluted internal revenue code in […]
[…] just look at these three images – here, here, and here – and you’ll find startling evidence that politicians make the tax […]
Rather than any kind of tax, we should fund government with voluntary user fees. The only penalty for failure to pay would be that one would not receive the desired service.
[…] number two fiscal problem is a punitive and corrupt tax code (as captured by images here, here, and here). A big part of the solution is a simple and fair flat […]
I posted this on my Facebook page and my brother, who is enormously talented at nailing the core point, summed it up this way: “In the long run, all spending is tax, just a deferred tax, usually paid via inflation.”
Why must you have the federal government impose any tax directly? It’s easy to conceive of a world in which the DC is financed by contributions from the governments of the provinces that are ridiculously called states. Under the new financing regime, the provinces, or states, would stand in relation to the DC as the DC stands in relation to the UN. So it’s not true that a flat tax adminstered by the central government is the only answer.
Fair tax ain’t fair, but if you poor and middle class fools want to give me a tax break go for it.
I would like to see a simple flat tax with no deductions. . . you earn more you pay more. Maybe keep no taxes on folks below the poverty line but other than that no way out of paying the tax
[…] In one picture […]
I am so tired of the term ” fair Tax”. Beware of anything that rich white men come up with that they call Fair. Poor people pay much more of their income on basic items. While the rich buy the same things, it takes a small portion of their income. They invest more, no tax. Buy luxury cars and yachts, but of course under a fair tax system they will buy they overseas. Where their vat is refunded. So not only due the poor pay a larger portion of their income in tax, jobs are moved out of the country. This is just the tip of the iceberg on the “Fair Tax” I fail to see what is fair about it. Simple really is the answer. I used to a full time employee to calculate sales tax. A fair tax is a disaster to calculate , just ask any European manufacturer. A 72,000 page tax code is a disaster as well. With a flat tax it would be more simple, harder to cheat on. less need for the IRS, and less punishment for the successful. While I am not a big fan of a flat tax I have yet to hear of anything better. (maybe we should put any increase in the rate on the national ballot every four years) If taxes are simple, no mare 72;000 page tax code, no more loopholes, almost no more IRS, less work to fill out the tax forms, no more punishing the successful and a reduction in the power of Congress to raise taxes. Does any body think their Representative or Senators really understand the 72,000 pages? They are the ones changing the tax laws, lets give they something they can understand
[…] https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/everything-thats-wrong-with-the-tax-system-in-a-sing… […]
FAIR TAX, please.
Flat tax is fine, but a national sales tax is better. There are two bills already in the House for the Fair Tax (national sales tax). Yes, we must guard against someone trying to double down with the income tax plus the sales tax. Vote their butts out!
Dan, Dan, Dan, you’re DOING IT WRONG!
Look, put this boring chart into a boring Powerpoint presentation, blow it up to cinema screen height, (you might have to adjust the scale to one pico-page per inch or something), hire a cherry picker, and make this post into a “movie”.
Tell a few personal anecdotes for the first hour, cry a few crocodile tears – and just between you and me – throwing in a few sad-looking CGI polar bears never hurt anybody, (Academy Award material – just sayin’).
Jesus, what the hell is wrong with you? Reading all that Ayn Rand kill your sense of theatrics stone dead? Get with the programme.
How can I post this to Facebook?
Reblogged this on Public Secrets and commented:
No wonder my tax accountant makes so much money….
FairTax
I think the key word is simple. I have a first tax return used in the USA. It was printed on a large paper so that when folded in half there are four pages. On those four pages are the tax form, the tax rates, the explanation of how to fill out the forms, and the tax law. The brackets were 1,2 and 3%. And the government seemed to work fine. We didn’t have financial problems until that process was changed and the brackets were changed. By the way the government never ran a deficit. Maybe simple really is the answer.