76-04-A2

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Tax Reform I

Transcript When is tax reform not tax reform? When it's a tax increase, and we've just had one. In this election season we've been told the income tax structure is a disgrace; that it falls heavily on some and provides loopholes for others. Well, the income tax is a disgrace, but not necessarily for the reason I've just given. It costs all of us too much because government costs too much. It is so complicated even the person of modest earnings must get legal or professional help to find out how much he or she owes each April 15th. And the Internal Revenue Service employees can't help us because they don't understand the rules and regulations either. A man in Atlanta, Georgia took all of his records to the Internal Revenue Service office, where the staff on duty at the time worked out a final figure on what he owed the government. He then took the same records to the I.R.S. office in Rome, Georgia, where he got a different answer. More than a little curious by this time, he crossed state lines with these same records, visiting all in all five different I.R.S. offices. He wound up with five different answers as to how much he should send the government. I hope he paid the lowest amount. Maybe to play safe he added them up and divided by five. We need tax reform that will simplify the process of finding out how much tax to pay. Ah. But haven't we just had a tax reform? Well, in a way, yes. What else can you call 1,500 pages of new income tax laws, a book five inches thick? If we are honest, we'll call what's just been cooked up by Congress a tax increase, because the government is going to get $1.6 billion more than it was getting under the old rules. It is true most of the increase will come from income on investments, which means there will be less investment and therefore slower economic growth, fewer jobs and less income to tax down the road away. The new tax reform, 1500 pages, has been studied by some pretty sound economists who claim they can't understand it. So tax reform turns out to be no tax cut for any, a tax raise for some and more headaches for all. Oh yes, about those loopholes. It's time we recognized this as the big, perennial fairy tale it really is. About 60% of total deductions are non-taxed Social Security payments, pension income and unemployment insurance, plus the $750.00 exemption we all take for ourselves and our family. On top of that comes the standard non-itemized deduction the average earner takes, interest on mortgage payments, medical costs, local and state taxes and contributions to church and charity. Actually 95% of all income tax deductions, the so-called loopholes, are taken by people of average income or less. We still need tax reform.		Details Batch Number 76-04-A2 Production Date 11/02/1976 Book/Page RPtV-80 Audio No Youtube? No
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