Fiat Currency Taxes – Part 2

(This article was written back in 2017, but has never been published until now.)

One of the major boasts Republicans made about their tax scam is that it simplifies tax preparation for many Americans. Funny, but for most people, taxes are already easy to file. It certainly could be easier, perhaps just by moving the tax filing season up from January 1st – April 15th to something like March 1st – June 15th. The months of January and February can be for all those banks and businesses that have to construct their W-2 forms, 1099s and 1098s, and whatever other nonsensical multiple names they give forms for money they either gave you or took from you. The IRS already has most of the documentation needed about your finances in order to process your taxes. How about real simplification, one form for reportable tax information? A box at the top to show if the form is for earnings such as wages, interest, dividends, tips, etc. There are 100 various ways you “earn” or spend money. There is your second form. The third and final form is for whatever supporting documentation is required. Who cares why you got money, you did, and someone else wanted to take a deduction of your earnings from their earnings, so they told the government. Once you get around to March, you should receive your copy of all the forms people and businesses submitted to the government. If the government did not get a copy of the form properly completed by the end of February, then it ain’t on this year’s taxes. You, the taxpayer, do not need to compile all that information that the IRS already has. Your tax forms are already filled in by the IRS, resulting in a big simplification. The forms are all available by mail or online (for free) for you to review and make any changes. You verify everything, sign by hand or electronically, and then make out your check or wait for the refund check to be deposited.

Of course, to make this simplification, major overhauls to the tax code will be required. For example, various rules that could only have been thought up by over-caffeinated legislators at a 3 am session hammering out two or three pet deductions and taxable events that all contradict each other. That crap cannot fit into a simplification plan. However, the most popular simplification (scam) is that reducing the number of tax brackets is a simplification. No, tax brackets are a feature. Brackets are necessary to create a politically and economically progressive tax plan. The brackets are really a 5th grade math exercise breaking numbers down to 3rd grade arithmetic. But most legislators are incapable of translating a word problem into third – grade arithmetic.