Four-Eight-Four [dot org]

I have, as of a few hours ago, finished that yearly ritual that most citizens of the US are compelled to undertake … that treasured rite of spring, the completion of income taxes.

Ick.

Every year about this time, I find myself once again firmly supporting the idea of replacing the income tax as we know it with a flat sales tax. The income tax system is broken. Badly.

Seriously, folks … the income tax paradigm has created an entire occupation … that of the paid tax preparer. That ought to tell you something. If somebody like me relatively smart guy, must spend hours poring over obtuse instructions trying to figure things out, then something ain’t sittin’ right.

Why must it be so difficult for citizens who want to count themselves in the law-abiding category to do what the government tells them they must?

Anybody who thinks filing taxes is easy must have no investments or retirement stashed away … or otherwise have any sort of weird income that puts them in a category that requires them to use something other than the basic 1040-EZ.

For instance … in order to complete a portion of my taxes, I had to list, year by year, the amount contributed to a Roth IRA we have, and the total value of the IRA at the end of that year. Right now, it’s only been around since 2002, so it’s not so bad. But … let’s say I’m 65, not retired (and I hope I’m not … I don’t plan on retiring unless health or something else forces me to do so), and still have this IRA. The year will be 2040, and the IRA will have been in existence for some 38 years … which will mean (if the tax rules are the same) I have to list 38 years worth of contributions and market values.

That, my friend, is ridiculous.

And the kicker is I can’t even figure out why I had to list that. I can’t see that it in any way changes the amount of tax I have to pay. After all, I pay tax on the money as it goes into the account, and I don’t pay tax on the interest. So why does the IRS care how much was put in for years prior to the previous tax year? Beats me.

You’d think they could check their prior records for that stuff.

A nice flat sales tax would be so much easier to deal with. And … I can say that this year as someone who is on the collecting end of the sales tax thing … I’d much rather file yet another form like the one I send to the State of Tennessee every month than deal with the mess of questions I have to answer to file using my filing program of choice.

No more stupid deductions and credits. No more keeping up with every blasted expense and trying to figure out what category they go in. Gone!

If only …

Some days, I wonder how John Adams or Ben Franklin would have reacted if they had been presented with a complete suite of IRS forms and told to file.

Technorati Tags: Taxes