The tax code is also designed to incentivize behavior that we wish to promote as a society. for example, directly reducing the tax versus tax benefits of a 401(k) and other such mechanisms. ultimately, the government is there to serve the interests of the people and society.
I understand the noble intent behind much of the tax code, but it has grown into a gnarly beast full of loopholes for the rich, and the wrong kind of societal incentives for the poor.
Is there a specific country's tax system that you look up to as the ideal?
I see often people claim that the US tax code sucks (nobody is going to defend it with the rising inequality), but there isn't any proposal about how exactly to enact the changes while still keeping the benefits of the tax code that apply to the disadvantaged.
Also, I'd like to point out that the tax code has every type of federal tax, administrative elements, and isn't just about income tax, and I'd argue that most of the federal tax code has nothing to do with "loopholes for the rich".
I would propose that we enact a graduated income tax system starting at 0% for the economically disadvantaged. It is not the job of the tax code to do anything else for them. We already have a plethora of state, federal, and non-profit agencies and organizations that provide targeted aid to them and are far more effective than the IRS could ever hope to be. The money saved by simplifying the tax code and thus the IRS could be better used by them instead.
Yes, the purpose of the IRS is revenue collection via federal income tax for funding the government with. Said funding can then be given to the agencies and organizations I mentioned in my previous comment.
Simplified tax code means less tax money is spent on administration overhead of the IRS itself and more money that can go to programs like WIC, SNAP, TANF, and other targeted programs that are more effective aid to the economically disadvantaged.
Okay that is fair, you'd reduce administrative and enforcement costs if the tax code was simplified, but creating and managing new programs would also lead to extra overheard. I suppose to ground these arguments we'd need to discuss numbers, but its hard to generate data on this w/o specifics.
