Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jwbwater 1773 days ago
How about they just make the tax laws so simple no one needs a "service" to figure out how much tax to pay? I know, that's crazy talk. Politicians wouldn't be able to carve out loopholes for their big donors and our entire system of government would fail.
2 comments

A lot of companies and peoples jobs in government rely on complicated rules and processes. They will fight hard anyone that tries to clean up the swamp.

Fair Tax is a way to mostly eliminate the IRS, and most of the tax prep industry. Everyone even gets a monthly check.

Not a chance anything like it will ever be passed.

You’re spot on. Without complexity, the loopholes would be easier to see, and easier to use. Then less revenue. And with less revenue, what would Biden be able to spend? Social programs, military, and surveillance would suffer. We can t have that, now can we?
Are revenues and spending even loosely related any more?
Worse than no.

A spending Bill has to show how it effects the budget. Contrived example.

Say it spends a billion dollars. But it needs to be balanced. So they tax pork rinds at 99% to balance it.

Now the paper result is the bill is balanced. Ignoring the real world result that pork rind sales plummet.

So on paper everything is fine. In reality an industry is destroyed.

This happens constantly. They just try and keep it from being to absurd.