Iowa and New Hampshire have not cast their votes, and
whether you are pleased or not with the results, the presidential race is about
to heat up even more. Combine that increased bickering with the ever
approaching date of April 15th and talk of “The Tax Code” is about
to become much more prevalent.
It is folly to think that a candidate will be able to get
into office and flip a switch or wave a magic wand and largely alter this Code.
(And there are times when everything they say sounds like folly, but that is a
subject for elsewhere). Sound-bite politics, though, make tax law seem much
easier than it is and we should remind ourselves of that when quick fixes are
promised.
If you need a reminder of just how complicated it is, note
that The Economist reported in 2010 that the
head of the Internal Revenue Service, Douglas Shulman, has someone else do his
taxes.
In that same article, it was reported that the US Tax Code
is over 70,000 pages long. That is a ludicrous number, and if it were true the
IRS should provide tax preparers with free bookcases. To put it in some
perspective, a 32-volume set of the Encyclopedia Britannica published in 2003
that I found on Amazon was only listed at “only” 32,640 pages.
This 70,000-page number, though, has been reported by such
respected news outlets as CNN and the New York Times. So could it really be true?
Andrew L. Grossman, an attorney with Congress’ Joint
Committee on Taxation, has
reported that the number is much less than the mythical 70,000. And
although his purpose is to points out that tax law is simpler than the popular
conception, I am not sure he achieves it.
Grossman says that he has a copy of the Tax Code that starts
on page 100, skips 500 pages in numbering somewhere in the middle, and ends on
page 4,037. When removing some outdated information, Gross estimates that the
actual Tax Code is around 2,600 pages. I can conceive of that number better
than then 70,000, but it is still astounding and intimidating.
I also would have preferred that those in charge of tax law
knew how to count better than that story says they do.
Although it appears impossible to derive a real answer to
the Tax Code’s length – the real answer probably lies somewhere between the two
extremes, as it usually does - it can be concluded that it is long and it is
complicated.
Yet, there are ever-growing ways for people to go about
handling their taxes on their own. Yes, one can use them and file a reasonable,
legal return. That can also put you at risk, though, as evidenced by a TaxSlayer
data breach that was recently revealed.
You do not have to be overwhelmed, though, for there are
people out there that can help you navigate these waters (whether they be
70,000-pages deep or not). If you want some of that help, we would love to hear
from you.
