By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Nine in 10 Americans will find the maze of credits, deductions and exemptions on their tax forms so confusing and difficult that they’ll hire someone or turn to special computer software to fill out their returns. Even the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service says he pays someone to do his taxes.
President Barack Obama and key lawmakers from both political parties say it’s time for a serious national discussion about making the tax code simpler and fairer. It’s going to be a long talk, one that could last years. Why? Because every deduction, exemption and credit, every layer of complexity, is important to somebody, in some cases millions of somebodies.
“That’s what the tax code is now, it’s a whole set of winners and losers,” said Howard Gleckman, a fellow at the Urban Institute and editor of TaxVox, a blog on tax issues. “If you reform it, you’re going to create new winners and new losers, and the losers always scream much louder than the winners cheer.”