The Last Major Overhaul Of Theu.s Tax Code

The current tax policy in the United States is very confusing and it is very costly for our government to administer it. It is in the best interest of our country and its citizens to revise or replace our current tax policy.

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People do not enjoy talking about taxes because they are too political, confusing, and depressing. It is no secret that the American tax code is a mess and something many economists describe as too broken to fix. Despite this, politicians have never stopped from trying to “fix” the code, yet they have had very little success. The U.S. Government’s tax code currently comprises “more than 67,000 pages of complexities” (Boortz, Linder, & Woodall 14). The Americans for Fair Taxation (AFFT) was founded in 1995 with one goal: create the simplest and best tax reform plan that would work in the modern market and economy. The AFFT’s best solution was a bill which they promptly called the FairTax.

The current tax code for the United States is almost 74,000 pages long. Or to put that into a different light: About 116 copies of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. It is small wonder that a few of the announced candidates for President of the United States, have again begun to kick the tires on the topic of a Flat Tax. But is a flat tax actually a solution to our country’s growing tax complexity? What are the potential economic effects of a flat tax (both positive and negative)? Finally, is a flat tax even a viable solution? In short, will it work? As a concept, a flat tax is spectacular. Simplicity at its finest. As a fiscal policy, I believe that same simplicity must be examined and inspected closely.

The tax policy in the United States is very confusing. When the tax policy was originally written in 1913 it was four hundred pages. Now, over the past ninety one years, that tax policy has evolved to over 72,000 pages. Since the tax code has become so lengthy and nearly impossible to understand, the topic of tax reform has been in the minds of many. Although, most barely think about tax reform until tax season. It is a controversial subject due to the impact a change in tax code would have on the American people. The two most popular and widely known stakeholders in this debate are the two major political parties in the United States, the Democrats and the Republicans. The two parties share absolutely no common ground on the subject of

In the article “Job One: Tax Code Rewrite,” William O’Keefe, an author who cares about tax reform, argues that the Obama Administration should rewrite the tax code in order to reduce the unemployment rate. He supports this claim with a formal tone by using opinions and anecdotes as evidence. According to William, we need “systematic reforms to our tax code and regulatory policy.” The author targets a tax reform audience that cares about the economy. William’s purpose is to persuade readers that Obama’s stimulus tax bill will not help the economy or business in the long run. This work is significant because it challenges the Obama Administration to rethink their priorities.

With the advancements in the globalization of the economy, corporations are finding more ways to avoid the extraordinary tax rates set in place of The United States Of America. With the loss of revenue from large companies dodging taxes the government must make up for the loss by either raising taxes or changing the tax code. A recent company to avoid american taxes is Johnson Controls, a company that “…would not exist as it is today but for American taxpayers, who paid $80 billion in 2008…”(The Editorial Board). This use of American resources to get through tough times, and run to another county during an economic incline is an act that calls for reform in the American tax system. However congress has not passed any legislation to fix the

The 2003 Bush Tax Reform was on the verge of expiring and congress recognized letting the Bush tax reform expire would represent a big mistake (Dye), for it could cause a huge damper in the United States economic, cause interest groups and the American people to chime in on a government official incapable of getting legislation passed to avoid suffrage of the American people. Congress debated back and forth over the issues of raising the top income tax rate marginal from 35 percent to 39.5 percent, unemployment compensation extension and real estate taxes.

In this paper I explore the relationship between the tax structures of South Carolina and Texas. Through research into tax rates, tax brackets, and the different types of taxes used to create government revenue in the state, I seek to explore the benefits and detriments that the differing tax structures bring to taxpaying citizens in the state and to the business environment in each of the states. I researched taxes placed on individuals, in state businesses, and multistate businesses. Based on the research I concluded that Texas is the better state for business activity with a higher economic growth projections and a top ten rating of Forbes list of top states for business. South Carolina, however, does have benefits for multistate corporations due to a recent change in apportionment formulas and clear Supreme Court Rulings.

In the United States today there are millions of corporations in many different industries. All of them must abide by the current taxation rules and regulations that have been set by IRS and congress. The Internal Revenue Code, which was originally founded in 1939, set the foundation for the codification that we have in place today. The code arranged all Federal Tax provisions in a logical order and placed them in a separate part of the federal status. Over the years, congress has updated and amended the tax code in 1954, in 1986 Tax Reform Act, and is constantly updating the code due to its importance in assessing judicial and administrative decisions. The

With possibly the last changes to the tax law through President Obama’s term, Congress agrees on making many of the “Tax Extenders” permanent. These so-called “Tax Extenders” are tax provisions that Congress has passed over the past few years with short-term expiration dates, at which point the provision would lapse. Typically, after the provision lapsed, Congress would retroactively reinstate the provisions, thus extending its life through the current tax year. This has led to some tax planners relying on the hopes that Congress will reinstate these provisions, without the explicit knowledge that they would do so. Therefore, the now permanent provisions (those that have been extended without a set expiration date) are able to give tax planning professionals more certainty in their projections. The act made several changes to Section 529 Plans alongside with these “extenders”. The chart below briefly summarizes the new tax law changes from the PATH Act of 2015 that most closely affect individuals and small businesses. It should be noted that this does not encompass all aspects of the act, as there are several changes that apply to larger corporations, IRS reform, and the prevention of fraud and abuse.

The United States tax system is in complete disarray. Republicans and Democrats agree that the current tax code is complex, unfair, and costly. The income tax system is so complex; the IRS publishes 480 tax forms and 280 forms to explain the 480 forms (Armey 1). The main reason the tax system is so complex is because of the special preferences such as deductions and tax credits. Complexity in the current tax system forces Americans to spend 5.4 billion hours complying with the tax code, which is more time than it takes to manufacture every car, truck and van produced in the United States (Armey 1). Time is not the only thing that is lost with the current tax system; Americans also lose

Taxation is an element of fiscal policy, and we should ensure that the strategies we undertake will minimize the tax burden placed upon the company. Competition is encouraged by trade policy. America's commitment to free trade means that we could potentially face a number of international competitors but more importantly that we are likely to have easy access to any number of foreign countries.

Tax system is a legal system of imposing and collecting taxes from the citizens of the country. As it has been stated by Albert Einstein, the hardest task in the world is to understand the tax system of a country. The United States’ tax system is so complicated that its tax code contains almost 3 million words and 6,000 pages. Moreover, the taxes implied by city and state governments add more complexity to the federal taxation system. In this case, we do not need to understand the complexity of tax code system in order to get acquainted with the significant role of taxes in American society.

The United States is in a recession; it has been facing some of the worse economic times since the Great Depression in the 1930’s. One option to fix the economy is to change the corporate tax rate. To lower it or to raise it, that is the question economists have been speculating. America's high corporate tax rate and worldwide system of taxation discourages U.S. companies from sending their foreign-source revenue home, which makes U.S. companies defenseless to foreign acquisition from the international opponents (Camp). Corporations and United States citizens have been fighting for a tax reform, which would hopefully help the American economy; either by lowering the corporate tax, or by raising the tax.