Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - [Homestead] Tax Simplification---Su-rr-rre

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Tax Simplification---Su-rr-rre
  • Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 14:59:08 -0400

Not from His Slipperyness who ADDED ONE THOUSAND PAGES TO THE FEDERAL TAX CODE SO FAR---"Dont EVER listen to what I say, watch whatI I do."


startribune.com <http://www.startribune.com>
news <http://www.startribune.com>freetime <http://www.startribune.com/freetime>travel <http://www.startribune.com/travel>shopping <http://www.startribune.com/shopping>cars <http://www.startribune.com/cars>homes <http://www.startribune.com/homes>jobs <http://www.startribune.com/jobs>
metro/region <http://www.startribune.com/metro>nation/world <http://www.startribune.com/nationworld>politics <http://www.startribune.com/politics>business <http://www.startribune.com/business>sports <http://www.startribune.com/sports>variety <http://www.startribune.com/variety>opinion <http://www.startribune.com/opinion>fun <http://www.startribune.com/fungames>talk <http://www.startribune.com/talk>classifieds <http://www.startribune.com/classifieds>



Log in <http://24hour.startribune.com/login/>

Register <http://24hour.startribune.com/login/> | Lost password? <http://24hour.startribune.com/login/request_emailpass>


Welcome,

Member Center <http://24hour.startribune.com/login/membercenter> | Log out <http://24hour.startribune.com/register-bin/signup.pl.cgi?mode=logout>

Opinion <http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519>


index

cartoons <http://www.startribune.com/images/26/>

commentary <http://www.startribune.com/stories/562>

editorials <http://www.startribune.com/stories/561>

netlets <http://www.startribune.com/stories/109>

letters <http://www.startribune.com/stories/563>

lori sturdevant <http://www.startribune.com/stories/314>

arguments through the ages <http://www.startribune.com/stories/1389/>


projects

china: a brighter moon <http://www.startribune.com/stories/1653/>

imagining africa <http://www.startribune.com/stories/1654/>

tending the cities <http://www.startribune.com/stories/1655/>

learning to die <http://www.startribune.com/stories/779>

news projects <http://www.startribune.com/projects>


contact

how to submit a letter or commentary <http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/2003227.html>


archive

stories <http://www.startribune.com/archives>

corrections <http://www.startribune.com/corrections>

reprints <http://www.startribune.com/reprints>

projects <http://www.startribune.com/projects>


feedback

news <http://www.startribune.com/dynamic/feedback/form.php?category=News%20News%20Content>

advertising <http://www.startribune.com/dynamic/feedback/form.php?category=Advertising%20Comments&tech=yes>

general <http://www.startribune.com/feedback>

contact info <http://www.startribune.com/stories/776/26421.html>


Last update: September 10, 2004 at 6:45 AM


Editorial: Tax simplification/Whiplash at the White House

September 10, 2004 ED0910

Speaking at the Republican National Convention last week, President Bush promised to lead a bipartisan campaign for tax simplification if he wins a second term in office. This is a terrific idea: A simpler tax code would reduce the headaches of April 15 for millions of individual taxpayers and let market forces, rather than tax loopholes, guide the decisions of American business.

But it's hard to know why voters should take the president seriously, when he has spent the last four years doing exactly the opposite. The three large tax bills Bush has pushed through Congress since 2001 have cut taxes for most Americans, but they have also added something like 1,000 pages to the federal tax code and introduced a baffling array of phase-ins, phase-outs, sunsets and tax shelters to the Form 1040.

A recent summary by the Congressional Budget Office gives just a few examples. If you have children under 17, your tax credit went up last year but will go down next year. Unless the children turn 17 during the year; then they don't qualify in the first place. If you sold shares in a mutual fund, your tax rate went down last year -- but only if the sale occurred after May 3 -- and will go up again in 2009. Contemplating marriage? Do it this year or wait until 2009, when the standard deduction will be higher. But don't get married in between, when the standard deduction will be lower. If you have a nest egg to leave your children, make sure you live until 2010, when the federal inheritance tax disappears. But don't wait too long to die: the tax pops back into effect in 2011, using the same provisions that governed estates in 2002. And so on.

"We've just about stopped trying to give our clients estate-planning advice," says one Minneapolis accountant. "We used to memorize major new provisions of tax law," says another. "Now we have to rely on the computer."

This sort of complexity might be considered a fair trade-off for lower taxes. But Bush and Congress' Republican tax writers could have cut taxes and simplified the tax code simultaneously by merely removing loopholes and cutting marginal rates. Instead, they added new breaks for capital gains, dividend income, business depreciation, certain married couples, families with children of a certain age, college expenses when paid for out of special accounts and certain forms of health insurance. Any of these might be worthy goals; Congress for years has used the tax code to reward certain kinds of behavior. But they have nothing to do with tax simplification.

We hope the president meant what he said in New York last week. It would be good for the economy and good for anyone who has wrestled with a Form 1040. But then simplifying the tax code would mean jettisoning dozens of special new provisions that Bush just introduced. Voters might be forgiven if the term "flip-flop" comes to mind.


Return to top
<http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/4973222.html#top>




Story tools

Email this story <http://www.startribune.com/viewers/email_article.php?story=4973222>
AIM this story <aim://goim?message=Check+this+story+out:+%3Cbr%3E+http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/4973222>
Print this story <http://www.startribune.com/viewers/story.php?template=print_a&story=4973222>
Make us your homepage <http://www.startribune.com/stories/776/3070885.html>


Search

More options <http://www.startribune.com/search>



Star TribuneĀ© 2004 <http://www.startribune.com/copyright> Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
feedback <http://www.startribune.com/feedback> terms of use <http://www.startribune.com/terms> privacy policy <http://www.startribune.com/privacy> member center <http://www.startribune.com/members> company site <http://www.startribunecompany.com> company directory & contacts <http://www.startribunecompany.com/company/ic/home/contact/contact.htm>
company jobs <http://www.startribunecompany.com/jobs> advertising information <http://www.startribunecompany.com/company/ic/home/marketing/marketing.htm> newspaper subscriptions & service <http://www.startribune.com/subscriptions> eEdition <http://www.startribune.com/ee> classroom newspapers <http://www.startribune.com/nie>
425 Portland Av. S., Minneapolis, MN 55488 Map <http://hoster.startribune.com/mapquest/current/cgi-bin/mqinterconnect.cgi?screen=map&link=map&city=Minneapolis=United%20States&event=zoom&lat=449760&lng=-932618&orig_lat=449760&orig_lng=-932618&orig_name=425%20PORTLAND%20AVE&si=2&so=1&ss=1&state=MN&streetaddress=425%20Portland%20Ave.%20S.&zip=55488&level=9&event=zoom> The McClatchy Company
company jobs <http://www.mcclatchy.com/employment> corporate site <http://www.mcclatchy.com>
2100 Q Street, Sacramento, CA, 95816

























































































































1





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page