What should it tell us when even the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Douglas Shulman, has to hire a tax specialist to prepare his taxes each year? Just as important, what should it tell our members of Congress?
Commissioner Shulman made his candid admission during an interview on C-SPAN recently.
“I use a preparer. I’ve used one for years,” he said. “I find it convenient. I find the tax code complex, so I use a preparer.”
With the tax code being a whopping 67,000 pages long, we’re hard-pressed to blame Commissioner Shulman or anybody else for paying someone to prepare the annual returns. And in fairness to Mr. Shulman, Congress, not he, writes the tax laws.
He did, however, acknowledge that the code ought to be made more understandable.
“I for a long time have been a big fan of simplification …,” he said. “I think it’s good for the country. … I think it’s apple pie and motherhood to simplify the tax laws.”
We agree. In fact, there ought to be radical simplification of the tax code, with elimination of many of the confusing deductions and credits, and replacement with a reasonable, flat rate.
There ought to be no need for any taxpayer of even moderate intelligence to have to hire a professional tax preparer or purchase expensive software to complete tax returns. And certainly anyone who diligently tries to complete his returns in accordance with the law ought not to have to fear big financial penalties or even prison time for making a mistake due to the tax code’s absurd complexity.