Late In Game For Late Refunds & Simplified Tax Code?

WSJ warns “Your Tax Refund Might Be Late – Again” arguing Congress should finally grace the IRS with new technology rather than hounding citizens with audits BUT that it also SIMPLIFY the Tax Code it keeps complicating, e.g., via its latest “child allowance mess.”

Wrote the editors: “We’ve chronicled the IRS’s many problems – from delayed tax refunds to tens of millions of unprocessed tax returns. Hard to fathom the dysfunction could get worse. But last week the National Taxpayer Advocate & Treasury Inspector General revealed even more disarray.” Apparently, the IRS is “begging Congress” for more money to improve taxpayer service by modernizing its outdated computer systems and enough boots on the ground, not to audit folks, but to simply improve on the terrible “one in nine” taxpayer assistance call backs last tax season.

Yet, the WSJ may have hit upon the biggest & best long range “solution” to the IRS’s chronic dilemma in servicing its taxpayer clientele by simplifying what has loooong become a ponderous body of tax law, e.g., by eliminating “complicated transfer-payment programs (especially the child allowance). Especially just this one credit though? How about the thousands of complicated rules and regulations on a plethora of credits, deductions & exemptions that even the tax experts (at the IRS and among private preparers/advisors) can accidentally slip up on? Think GAO’s 2014 limited review of tax return accuracy and “bum” advice meted out sometimes showing a 60% boing rate.

Davd Soul