Tax Time

Each year at this time, Rural Ways spends many hours . . . days . . . sweating over federal tax forms. Rural Ways is inhabited by honest citizens who wish to do their civic duty by way of complying with the tax code. Unfortunately, after hundreds of pages of instructions, dozens of forms, and many days of head scratching, Rural Ways files tax forms that may contain errors. Why? Because, despite years of practice, the complexity of the tax code puts full understanding of it beyond the reach of our time and resources. Nor is this problem limited to the dullards at Rural Ways. The President's bi-partisan Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform recently reached this same conclusion:

"The current individual income tax system is hopelessly confusing and complicated. Many taxpayers are required to make multiple computations to see if they qualify for a number of benefits and penalties, and many dole out large sums of money to tax preparers. Meanwhile, other taxpayers underreport their income and taxes, hoping to avoid the audit lottery. In short, the Commission has concluded what most taxpayers already know – the current income tax is fundamentally unfair, far too complex, and long overdue for sweeping reform."

As a result, the Commission proposed steps to simplify the tax code and make compliance straight-forward. These proposals were, however, quickly buried and will never be brought forward for Congressional debate. In order to reach Congress, the Commission itself had to vote to accept its own proposals. The vote fell short because none of the sitting members of Congress on the Commission would approve it . . . even though they wrote it. The only Commission members to approve the proposals were those who had retired and no longer have to face the voters. This is because, in our current political climate, being willing to compromise makes you un-electable. Alas, Rural Ways will spend the rest of this day . . . and many days to come, trying to conform to the 2010 federal tax tables.