1.09.2013

Tax filing "becoming more complicated"



I.R.S.’s Taxpayer Advocate Calls for a Tax Code Overhaul
Excerpt:
In her legally required annual report to Congress, the national taxpayer advocate, Nina E. Olson, estimated that individuals and businesses spend about 6.1 billion hours a year complying with tax-filing requirements. That adds up to the equivalent of more than three million full-time workers, or more than the number of jobs on the entire federal government’s payroll.

And filing is only becoming more complicated as lawmakers haggle over new tax breaks.

Since 2001, Congress has made nearly 5,000 changes to the United States tax code, or more than one a day on average. Nine in 10 taxpayers now pay money, for professional preparers or often-expensive commercial tax software, to figure out how much money they owe the government.

One of the advocate’s suggestions for streamlining the tax code was to repeal the alternative minimum tax, a parallel tax system intended to make sure rich Americans pay a fair amount in taxes, which is increasingly engulfing middle-class taxpayers. Another was to reduce the number of income exclusions, deductions and credits, known collectively as “tax expenditures,” that clutter up the tax code.
Comment: I really don't see this situation improving. Remember the call for "fairer and flatter" taxes? I am a Turbo Tax fan. I start in early February and input the data as it arrives (starting with the W-2's). I've found it best not to submit too early. Target date for submission of taxes is the 1st week of March. Before submission, I do a final review with Kathee reviewing all of the documentation and applying a "second set of eyes" to it.

1 comment:

  1. Electronic filing is an easy way to fill the tax forms because it also provide the guidebook to help the taxpayers. As w2 electronic filing software assists tax payers to fill tax forms according to guidelines.

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