Stop Me If You’d Heard This Before

I used to think the oldest line in history was “Do you come here often?”

But now as we encroach on another Presidential election year, that shopworn pick-up line may be usurped by “We need to reform the Tax Code.”

Since I began either covering or consulting in the accounting profession 16 years ago, I’ve heard this pledge more often than a bad Top 40 hit. I once even hosted an editorial roundtable interview with the members of George W. Bush’s ill-fated committee to reform the tax code.

Remember them?

I didn’t think so.

In a move that will surprise literally no one, a task force headed by the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee has unveiled a strategy to fix the Tax Code. The aptly named Task Force on Tax Reform will embark on a broad-based course to make the tax code “simpler and fairer” among other goals.

Again, stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

At last month’s Tax Council Policy Institute’s Symposium, the committee said its pro-growth tax reform policy will showcase a number of “core principles.”

For example, reducing the page count in the tax code – which currently stands at 70,000 and houses some three (3) million words. And no, that’s not a misprint. To put that number of words in perspective, War and Peace, which for me at times was just as ponderous as skimming through the IRC, has just over 700,000 words.

This new committee wants to augment the page and word reductions with shorter returns and truncated IRS instructions.

Thus far, that sounds like a fair agenda.

Also, closing loopholes eliminate carve-outs and limit the myriad deductions and credits, not to mention loopholes that currently reside within the IRC.

Good luck getting that one past the special interest groups. Ditto for the committee’s goal of reducing the resources devoted to tax avoidance. You want to stop corporate inversions and overseas tax shifts then establish a competitive tax rate for businesses that create jobs. Not only domestically, but one that will help the US compete globally.

And eradicating the Alternative Minimum Tax will hopefully be among the top reform projects as well.

Here’s hoping the 28th time is the charm.