Elizabeth Warren pushes tax simplification

Posted by | April 13, 2016 08:32 | Filed under: Politics


With less than a week left before the April 18 deadline to file tax returns this year, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is to introduce a bill Wednesday that would change filing procedures in coming years and hit major for-profit tax filing industry players. Warren’s bill, the Tax Filing Simplification Act of 2016, seeks to establish a…

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By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.

15 responses to Elizabeth Warren pushes tax simplification

  1. Jimmy Fleck April 13th, 2016 at 08:45

    While free tax software would be nice, it doesn’t sound like this does anything to simplify your taxes. They need to just set the progressive rates and eliminate all the deductions to where you just put your income in and multiply by the various rates as it pertains to you.

    $0 to $20,000 (or whatever brackets make sense) = 0%
    $20,000 to $50,000 – 10%
    $50,000 to $100,000 – 20%
    etc. The only decision then is what levels to make each tax bracket. Tax all income at the same rates – capital gains, interest, salary, tips, wages, whatever earns you money.

    • Mensa Member April 13th, 2016 at 09:15

      …. and make Social Security/Medicare tax progressive as well.

      • Jimmy Fleck April 13th, 2016 at 09:39

        Just roll the funding of those programs into the general budget and it would be instantly progressive.

    • Obewon April 13th, 2016 at 09:51

      Cheapskates never do math accurately. You pay 1/3+ because GOP M/billionaires average 12% federal tax on net income after very generous writeoffs. Federal Revenue = 25% of 2015 gross $18 T GDP.

      • Jimmy Fleck April 13th, 2016 at 09:54

        That is why I suggest getting rid of all the write-offs and taxing all types of income in the same manner.

        • Obewon April 13th, 2016 at 09:56

          You’re foolish. Businesses deduct wages, benefits, cost of goods sold, marketing, property, taxes, SEP-IRA, etc. U.S. corps that pay taxes average 12% federal tax.

  2. Larry Schmitt April 13th, 2016 at 09:06

    Virginia used to have that. No software required, just enter your information online, and your return was processed. That works for simple, one-page returns with no itemizing, but it would be much harder to do with more complicated returns.

  3. Mensa Member April 13th, 2016 at 09:13

    I am so glad a liberal is advocating for tax simplification.

    I agree with the Republicans that it needs to be simplified but I don’t trust them to do it.

    You can bet your life that the GOP would use simplification to shift even more of the tax burden to working people.

    • Mike April 13th, 2016 at 18:47

      It’s called the flat tax….the burden would shift 30% more to the middle class.

  4. Budda April 13th, 2016 at 09:35

    I have always used an accountant to do my taxes. Unfortunately or fortunately I don’t have a ‘simple’ tax rate. A year or two ago I got Turbo Tax to try and see if the accountant was worth it. The accountant got me an extra $800 deduction that Turbo didn’t the first year. This year Turbo didn’t get another $325 deduction.

    My point is simplification of the tax code is desirable. But I wonder how many folks would get unemployed by it?

    • Elizabethtwilliams4 April 13th, 2016 at 09:39

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    • Larry Schmitt April 13th, 2016 at 09:53

      That’s not enough reason to keep an unwieldy and incomprehensible tax code. Loss of jobs didn’t keep congress from enacting the two rounds of BRAC, which closed many military bases and eliminated thousands of jobs. Tax collection is not supposed to be a jobs program.

      • Dwendt44 April 13th, 2016 at 11:16

        Most of those are seasonal at best. Feb 1 thru Apr 18th..

      • bpollen April 13th, 2016 at 16:22

        The IRS says that the information you get from their employees charged with providing tax-filing info may not be accurate. That makes it sound kinda like a make-work jobs program, doesn’t it? “We hire people who aren’t qualified to help you with your taxes! And any mistakes they make are on you!”

  5. robert April 13th, 2016 at 17:55

    “No citizen should have to pay for the software necessary to file taxes,
    nor should they be required to go through an industry middleman to get
    their forms to the IRS,” the letter said.
    ——–
    i agree 100% and long over due

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