Conservation Tax Breaks & IRS Crackdown

The WSJ’s “Conservation Tax-Break Deals Keep Flowing Despite IRS Crackdown” focuses on taxpayer abuses yet part of the problem is also Congress’s genius for meandering verbiage in an ever-expanding Tax Code instead of introducing clarity, brevity & simplicity.

As a lawyer who was once managing editor of a leading Tax Code publication, I have to admit to a divided view: I pity the IRS folks having to enforce the Tax Code Congress has saddled all of us with AND the average taxpayer who is caught in a fraudster’s web. Hence, the WSJ writes: “Officials, city abuse, persist in protracted wrestling match with promoters offering clients huge tax deductions.”

Sure, tax cons are in the woodwork as are cockroaches. But, part of the problem is that the buggers are too often fed by a Tax Code that is so impossible to interpret let alone enforce that it gives them ample excuses, defenses & bogus arguments when it comes to a courtroom showdown. We’ve heard this plea a gazillion times before: SIMPLIFY THE TAX CODE!

Davd Soul