Tax code should reward, not punish
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April 14, 2013 |
By U.S. Congressman Raul Labrador
As Tax Day approaches, imagine you had the
opportunity to invent a new tax code for the
United States. You would be hard pressed to come
up with something more confusing, cumbersome and
less job-friendly than we have now.
Even the previous head of the Internal Revenue
Service admitted to using a tax preparer to help
file due to our tax code's complexity.
To put the colossus of our tax code into
perspective, consider this: at more than 3.8
million words, our tax code has more than four
times more words than the complete works of
William Shakespeare. It has swelled from 400
pages in 1913 to over 70,000 pages today.
According to the Tax Foundation, Tax Freedom Day
will fall on April 18. That means Americans, on
average, will work more than three and a half
months before they have earned enough money to
pay this year's tax obligations at the local,
state and federal levels.
This year, the federal government expects to
extract a whopping $2.7 trillion -- the highest
revenue in our history -- in taxes from
Americans. Yet President Obama continues to call
for even higher taxes and includes $1.1 trillion
in new taxes in his budget proposal.
Tax Day serves as a reminder that taxpayers
don't need to pay more in taxes. Our economy is
still fragile and many areas in Idaho are
suffering economically.
That is why I have been a strong advocate for
pro-growth tax reform, such as the reforms
advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan in the FY2014 budget.
Those reforms would discard our needlessly
complex tax code and replace it with a simpler
and fairer code that promotes saving and
investment and will create jobs.
Our tax code should be easier to understand and
comply with. Taxpayers spend approximately 6.1
billion hours and $168 billion complying with
the tax code. The amount of money families and
businesses spend trying to comprehend the tax
code is money that could be spent better
elsewhere. For example, businesses could develop
new products and invest in their future. The
more energy spent searching for special
deductions, credits and loopholes, the less
productive we are as a country.
It's time we had a tax code that rewards – not
punishes – hard work and success. A simpler and
fairer tax code is a better platform for more
jobs and a more robust economy. |
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