[_2z1p]

A simple tax code is a simple one for a computer to calculate.

1. Input the taxpayers's income from all taxable sources.

2. Lookup what tax bracket you're in based on that income.

3. Calculate the appropriate tax bill based on that percentage.

4. Subtract that from whatever has already been taxed out of their payroll for the year.

5. Bill them or refund them appropriately.

No humans would need to be part of the process if it were that simple, saving money and making errors less likely. Also, the simpler the tax code is the less computing hours it will require to complete the entire country's taxes, meaning faster refunds and less energy usage. Simpler taxes are even better for the environment!

[landemva]

A simple tax code is to eliminate the federal personal income tax. No federal personal income tax would eliminate W-2 paycheck wiithholding, giving every W-2 employee an effective take home pay increase.

People not filing personal federal income tax is green.

Banks not sending people yearly interest statement is green.

Companies not withholding personal federal income tax from paychecks uses less CPU and fewer papers so it is green.

Keep or tweak corporate taxes and fees as deemed necessary. And each State can do whatever.

[lockhouse]

That sounds even better.

[gamblor956]

It sounds so simple when some random guy on the internet says it! The professionals who have worked on this for decades clearly have no idea what they're doing!

1) People have lots of taxable sources, and many of them aren't digitized. This is especially true for people whose primary source of income is not W2 employment.

2) Computers can figure out the inner workings of stars, the alignment of molecules in proteins, and all sorts of other things that requires massive amounts of computing. If you're going to use a computer to calculate taxes, you don't need a simple tax code. Indeed, the tax code should be as complicated as possible to efficiently and fairly calculate taxes for each individual and corporation. But on that note, the calculation of income taxes is relatively straightforward. (The IRS is able to verify the calculations of the tens of millions of returns that are filed digitally within minutes.) The issue is, and has always been, data entry.

3) See #2.

4) Ignores all the other types of tax payments made during the year...

5) This is literally how it already works once you send in your tax return.

[lockhouse]

The tax code is excessively complex to provide loopholes for the wealthy to use to lower their tax burden.

[moregrist]

You are describing a typical 1040EZ filing.

I’m glad we’re in agreement that most people shouldn’t have to file this.

[ghaff]

There's no 1040EZ any longer I believe. But, yes, anything that simple should be able to default filed as a very simple 1040.