Simplification for the Average Taxpayer
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Description
The complexity in our tax laws, which has given rise to talk of simplification, is rooted in the statute itself. It is clearly the Internal Revenue Code and its progeny, the regulations, that are the sources of the difficulty. But the average American taxpayer is either unaware of the statute or could care less. The man on the street is concerned with the complexity that manifests itself each year on April 15, when he tries to do his tax return. Presumably then, simplification means those steps that would ease this annual burden. Most people seem to feel that simplification would be achieved if the average taxpayer could file his own return with little or no assistance with a minimum of difficulty. Implicit is the assumption that it is wrong to ask people to pay to have their returns completed. Therefore, Congress should do whatever is necessary to eliminate the need for the paid preparer. The thesis of this paper is that this goal, although laudable, is unachievable. To continue to imply that it is possible only exacerbates the problem. Even assuming this goal could be met, it would involve enormous trade-offs that most taxpayers probably would not be willing to accept. This is not to say that nothing can be done to ease matters. Some simplification is possible, and we should encourage Congress and the IRS to do so. Furthermore, simplification should be a factor—although not the determinant one—to be taken into account when new legislation is proposed or old laws reviewed. But by and large, given our tax system with its inherent complexities, the average taxpayer will never be able to do his own return and probably should not even try. This paper will examine what is complex for the average taxpayer and why it is so complex. It also summarizes possible ways to simplify and indicates that the inherent problems in simplification make it difficult to simplify enough to enable taxpayers to do their own returns. Finally, faced with that conclusion, it discusses what we should do.
Source Publication
Federal Income Tax Simplification
Source Editors/Authors
Charles H. Gustafson
Publication Date
1979
Recommended Citation
Schenk, Deborah H., "Simplification for the Average Taxpayer" (1979). Faculty Chapters. 1373.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1373
