Revamping the Tax Tyranny

Every year in America, April 15 means a day of frustration. This is the final day people can file their taxes. Children have grown up watching their parents stress out over taxes. As they reach maturity and enter the workforce, they too themselves now understand their parents frustration. Although no one feels the same pride, the income tax system is as American as apple pie. However, this system has grown into an unmanageable beast.

When laws are written and passed by Congress, they have some common themes for the most part. Laws should be simple and clear, so that the citizens of that nation know how to abide by it. Congress is supposed to write laws for the good of the whole nation, not custom made regulations for one group of people that hinder others. The government should not have to ability to add on, take away, and constantly rewrite laws. Yet one kind of law is changeable and irregular.

Tax law is bloated and difficult to understand. The government frequently adjusts the language. Legislators make the rules complex, biased, and unfair. It does not compare to any other type of law. Most every principle that nearly all other laws are held up to does not apply. The income tax system needs to be converted to a better, simpler flat tax system, applying a 17 percent tax to all goods and services.

America’s founding fathers created this country on the basic principle of freedom. Soldiers die attempting to bring freedom to nations that do not have it. However, every year, most Americans spend valuable time filling out paperwork that will ensure the government to continue to unfairly take their money, and also collect unnecessary information that very well could be considered an invasion of privacy. Most Americans think nothing of it. Most Americans have become accustomed to the injustices of the income tax system.

Sheldon Richman, a temple graduate who is now the editor of The Freeman magazine, sheds some light on that immorality of the current income tax system. He writes:

Proponents of the income tax have some explaining to do. By what right does the government take a portion of each person’s income without his consent before he even gets his hands on it? By what right does the government require each citizen to furnish highly personal information about the sources and amount of money he makes each year? By what right does the government threaten fines, property seizure, and imprisonment if it deems that information false and is unsatisfied with a citizen’s response? The income tax has become such an accepted part of life that most people never think to ask those questions. But those questions—and the income tax itself—should stick in the craw of a society that prides itself on being free. (11)

Taxes in America can be so unfair that one dollar earned is the difference in thousands of dollars paid. For example, the income tax system has different brackets that categorize people in regards to income. The higher one earns, the larger the percent of money to be taxed. So, in 2007, a single male that earned $31,849, after deductions and exemptions of course, would pay about $4,777. Now, if that same man earned just one dollar more, he would end up paying $7,962. If one really took the time to understand the unfairness of the system, it would actually be beneficial if that person stopped working at some point during the year. The system is broken.

Taxpayers have a near impossible attempting to understand their own taxes. Lawyers are constantly battling in court over unclear exemptions and deductions. Average people make countless mistakes and that cost them a hefty amount of money. The common person had a hard time keeping up with a tax code loaded with subparagraphs and complicated terminology. It takes the typical taxpayer and average of 28 hours and 30 minutes to fill out all of the necessary tax forms correctly every year (Forbes 36).

The current tax system has grown into a ridiculous and preposterous structure. The documents alone used to make up the tax code are amazing. If a good reader started reading the tax code for eight hours every day, it would take this reader at least two months to read the entire thing (Forbes 37). The Internal Revenue Services held 97,440 employees in the year of 2005, enough to populate a medium-sized town (Forbes 32). Furthermore, the IRS mails more than eight billion pages to taxpayers every year (Armey 16). With all the politicians claiming they want to help the environment, none of them examine what the tax system does to destroy it.

One must consider that there is an alternative. The income tax system has been around since 1913 (Armey 16). It is common for politicians, especially those in an upcoming election, to talk of tax reform ideas. Some have suggested a national sales tax, fair tax, one tax, or just tweaking the current