To be clear, the "esoteric mechanisms" are invented by some relatively low paid IRS tax nerds and then signed into law by congress (people that certainly cannot understand the rules and probably don't even bother reading them). I agree the rules are ridiculous, but don't think they've been created by "the elite".
What do you think lobbyists do? IRS tax nerds write some rules and then loopholes lobbied for by corporations get injected into the final bill.
Just heard the other day from AOC that the new COVID relief bill had such a ridiculous clause that no one even stepped up to claim they put it in, so they just removed it without any resistance. The whole bill authoring model is currently broken, representatives receive ridiculously little time to review what to vote for and massive bills are basically take it or leave it.
I agree with you. Some tax law is from lobbyists & some is from tax nerds. Congress doesn't have enough time to read laws (and they simply aren't qualified for tax law - some requires CFA-level understanding of accounting / finance).
For the specific tax law that taxpayers have leveraged that the IRS now doesn't like, I'm pretty sure it came from an IRS nerd. The Residual Profit Split Method. That one could only have come from a new grad.
> Congress doesn't have enough time to read laws (and they simply aren't qualified for tax law - some requires CFA-level understanding of accounting / finance).
Individual members may not, but they probably have legislative staffers that do, and the staff (majority and minority) of the tax committees, who prepare and distribute analyses of all tax bills, definitely have the skills to read, understand, and explain the implications of tax bills.
Members of Congress may not care, but they definitely have access to a competent understanding of proposed tax laws.
There’s no way you can argue this in good faith. In what world are “IRS nerds” inventing tax laws out of thin air? They’re codifying what lobbyists and politicians want them to.
