Thompson & McCarty, P.C. CPA

Income tax simplification is a subject that comes up every year. People are always asking me what I think about a flat tax, fair tax, one tax, etc., etc. Well, I will go on record right now as being a proponent of fair tax. This is Not in addition to our current wealth redistribution system. NO, not hardly, never. Repeal the income tax as we know it and replace it with fair tax. Now I do not believe that this or any other form of real tax reform will happen. My partner is in total disagreement with me on this if that makes you feel better.

My opinion is based on a couple of different things. First of all, I have been working in the tax preparation business since 1989. During that time I have seen the tax system become more and more complex. The people that are making this more complex (Congress) are the same people that would have to decide to make it more simple. There are many reason that the tax code keeps getting more complex. Most all of them are political. Taxes are designed to raise revenue for the government and the less the people most affected by the tax know, the better.

An excellent example of this is the payroll withholding system as we know it today. We should abandon the current payroll withholding system and just let the citizenry write a check once a month. The reason we do not do that is because the people would revolt if they were truly paying attention to the confiscation of wealth that is taking place. "Fair share" is a term often used by tax and spend politicians. What is the "Fair Share" of the revenue for the person that contributes nothing to the production process but impedes the process at every level? I submit that persons "Fair Share" is nothing. Our government does exactly that. Yet they take an amount that they have deemed "Fair Share". What is fair about it?

Secondly, everything that politicians do revolves around grabbing power and getting reelected. To simplify the tax code would mean yielding power. The current tax system is truly a redistribution of wealth program. The Congress controls the purse strings. In order to make real change they will have give up control of those purse strings. I do not believe they will ever relinquish that control.

I believe that the fair tax proposal is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to reform our tax code. Most people that I talk with believe that our tax code is broken and needs to be repaired. The problem is and always will be that we are dependent on the people that benefit from the broken system to repair it. Well I say, In my best good ole Southern slang style, It just ain't gonna happen.