Nothing is certain, save for death and taxes. 100 percent agreed with you Micah. There is simply no reason to further "complexify" an already unfathomably complex tax code.
At this point, it doesn't appear that anyone has the gumption to do what is necessary and set the code on fire and start anew.
We best ought to begin moving to consumption taxation and reducing tax on production. A VAT would be a good place to start, alongside an LVT. Simpler administration, harder to evade, and more economically efficient on several fronts.
That would be ideal. The politics of big changes like this are fraught, but I think broadening the tax based and using the most of the money to cut people’s tax rates and expand the standard deduction might be a political winner.
The question is, why is the tax code getting more complicated? If you were to poll people and ask them whether they want a simpler or a more complex code, everyone would choose the former.
This reminds me of the situation in universities. If you had asked people 40 years ago whether universities should hire more professors or more administrators, of course they’d all said more professors! Yet here we are.
Public choice theory. The way politics works is by promising some significant tangible benefit to 1% of the population that costs 99% of the population an amount not significant enough for them to fight about it. Repeat 50 more times until you have a majority that will elect you for those benefits. Bad for everyone, but the prisoner's dilemma is strong.
Nothing is certain, save for death and taxes. 100 percent agreed with you Micah. There is simply no reason to further "complexify" an already unfathomably complex tax code.
At this point, it doesn't appear that anyone has the gumption to do what is necessary and set the code on fire and start anew.
We best ought to begin moving to consumption taxation and reducing tax on production. A VAT would be a good place to start, alongside an LVT. Simpler administration, harder to evade, and more economically efficient on several fronts.
That would be ideal. The politics of big changes like this are fraught, but I think broadening the tax based and using the most of the money to cut people’s tax rates and expand the standard deduction might be a political winner.
The problem remains an inverse relationship between economic efficiency and populist desire.
We should have a VAT in addition to a progressive personal consumption tax.
The question is, why is the tax code getting more complicated? If you were to poll people and ask them whether they want a simpler or a more complex code, everyone would choose the former.
This reminds me of the situation in universities. If you had asked people 40 years ago whether universities should hire more professors or more administrators, of course they’d all said more professors! Yet here we are.
Public choice theory. The way politics works is by promising some significant tangible benefit to 1% of the population that costs 99% of the population an amount not significant enough for them to fight about it. Repeat 50 more times until you have a majority that will elect you for those benefits. Bad for everyone, but the prisoner's dilemma is strong.