Two months ago, I received another push poll from my misrepresntative in Congress, Scott Garrett (R, NJ5th). It had four questions about the IRS (never spelled out). Today I got the e-mail with results, mostly the explanation of what Garrett was on about. He reported on only one of the four questions,
“Do you require a tax preparer (e.g. accountant, online tax service) to assist you with your taxes?”
Today’s report is that
“three-quarters of respondents … said they needed to hire a professional tax-preparing service just to file” [emphasis added]
The subject line of the e-mail is “The Ever-Growing Tax Code is Wasting Your Precious Time.”
There are some other numbers in there, introducing the terrible burden placed on businesses as well as taxpayers (no source given) and reporting the “pages” of the tax code.
“The overly complex tax code is eating up our resources, our money, and our precious time”
Garrett’s proposed answer is a tax structure that’s “simpler, fairer and flatter.” He does mention loopholes, but not that looking for loopholes is what takes the time, requires the professional advice, and fills up all those pages. Neither does he mention that the loopholes are the province of those with disposable income, and of businesses.
In fact, the Paperwork Reduction Act notice [p.98] in the instructions for form 1040EZ shows 2 hours for actually preparing and submitting the form (1 hour for record keeping, and 2 for “all other,” possibly reading the 43 pages of instructions for the 1-page form with worksheets on the back). There’s no time allotted for “Tax Planning.” It estimates that 12 percent of tax filers can use that form.
The estimate for form 1040 is 16 hours, for 69 percent of returns, and the estimate is that all taxpayers (not counting schedules A, C, and so forth) can complete their filings in 13 hours, at an average cost of $200. Individuals filing with schedule C, E, F, or associated forms may take 24 hours, more than half of them in record keeping, at a cost of $410.
Not so bad for the average individual or small-business taxpayer. So what IS Garrett on about, really?
“It also means freeing up American businesses to spend more time innovating, saving, and investing—and less time trying to get special tax preferences.”
And straight from there, nemmind from whom they might be seeking special tax preferences, we go to “the Death Tax” (which of course can’t be found anywhere in the code, because it’s really called the Estate Tax). And surprise, in 2013, when 2.6 million Americans died, it pried taxes out of only 4,700 cold, dead hands. The first $5.43 million is exempt from the tax. (As reported on thinkprogress.com)
Misrep. Garrett returns to concern for the middle class with the “countless New Jersey families who are desperate for tax relief” with whom he’s “spoken.” Countless? We have countless New Jersey families with anticipated estates of more than five and a half million? Wow. Good news for those of us more desperate for help with our medical bills, or food, or heat, or our children’s education. Oh, shucks, who thinks about those things when we’re “giving a sigh of relief knowing that tax season is finally over.”
Happy midnight.