Comments on: Why?

By: Stormy

Stormy — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:53:26 +0000

I think our tax system is too complicated. The first time I filed taxes in college I was so frustrated I almost cried. And believe me, at the time my taxes were pretty straight-forward! Without tax preparation software (a huge business) even the simplest of tax filings can take hours and cause lots of headaches.

Anyways, what I wanted to say is that an accountant doesn’t keep you from making these “mistakes”. All you have to do is not mention facts to them and they can happily sign off on what you gave them.

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:28:25 +0000

Mathias Hasselmann: “What a huge waste of money.”

This is exactly the right way to look at it. Every tax code has a cost of implementation, and our cost is extraordinary. In other words, tax code reform is an opportunity to shrink the government.

That’s the good news. The bad news is it’s insane for political reasons. The US government has been in and out of gridlock for the last almost 30 years. It won’t improve until there’s a really dominant party in power. We haven’t quite reached that point yet, I don’t think.

By: uraeus

uraeus — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:11:15 +0000

Well while I am sure the US tax system can be simplified I think just stating that if you need help to deal with it means its to complex is a bit overly simplistic. These people have very complex income situations with a wide range of sources providing them with a very wide range of payouts and benefits, with the money coming both from national and international sources. This is a very different setup from Joe average who for the most part have one source of income and a fixed set of benefits from a national source.

By: Mathias Hasselmann

Mathias Hasselmann — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:54:11 +0000

I’d rather ask how broken are tax systems, that require professional accountants for doing proper and legal tax declarations. Especially if you consider that the tax office has to put similar effort into verifying your tax declarations.

What a huge waste of money.

By: Jeff Walden

Jeff Walden — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:34:10 +0000

(“For their own politicians” but encompassing the entire American populace, that is, not just a tax scheme for politicians!)

By: Jeff Walden

Jeff Walden — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:29:26 +0000

The Killefer thing seemed a bit much; at that scale, for that sort of thing, no matter who you are, you pay an extra fine along with the owed taxes and get on with life. It’s a minor offense punished with a minor fine. That’s not a double standard for the haves and the have-nots so long as you properly atoned for your misdeeds. (Politically, however, given the effort that had to be put into confirming Geithner, this was likely necessary to avoid expending even further political capital over a relatively minor appointment.)

Daschle and Geithner, on the other hand, committed markedly larger offenses in dollar terms. Far more important than that to me, however, is that from what I understand, each not only committed an error but, when notified of the error, did not promptly attend to its correction. As the saying goes, an error doesn’t become a mistake unless you refuse to correct it. They each refused to correct their errors (Daschle less so if you believe him that he thought his accountant was taking care of it, but for six months without verifying that fact? seems rather long), and I think each would have deserved not to be confirmed.

All this said, if the Democrats were to push for a flat tax to simplify the taxation process for their own politicians, I guarantee you it would receive as great a show of bipartisan support as can be imagined for any substantial piece of legislation, and perhaps there might be no more Geithner, Daschle, or Killefer snafus.

By: Friedrich

Friedrich — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:30:18 +0000

You are wrong. Every delegate must do it’s own income tax. They were it who have decided to make them as they are. So what you suggest is that the laws are good and that’s the really bummer. Why must anyone pay consultants for such a simple thing like taxes. It’s just because of piling up exceptions. I’d bet 80 % of any income tax declarations is wrong in one way or the other.

This Politicians deserve their self made laws

By: B

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 01:27:25 +0000

From http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123194884833281695.html

In 2004, an accountant advised Mr. Geithner in writing that he did not owe employment taxes. An accountant who reviewed Mr. Geithner’s 2001 tax return also didn’t inform Mr. Geithner he owed taxes, according to an Obama aide familiar with the situation.

The article goes on to say that he got conflicting advice from several sources and that he eventually managed to get some years correct but didn’t get the earlier ones correct.

By: marku

marku — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:35:32 +0000

maybe these liberals should just “”"”"pay your taxes”"”"”, just like us “real” americans.

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:14:21 +0000

Concur that the tax code is… insane. And yet, you’d think top ranked politicians would, just out of their instinct for self preservation, hire top ranked accountants as well. On the other hand, maybe they’ve realized they can get away with it. When the tax code is insane, who *doesn’t* cheat a little?