Renewing the Call for Tax Simplification

Beginning of article

On April 25th, the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation released a major report on simplification of the federal tax system. The report includes more than 1,300 pages of analysis of the current Internal Revenue Code and recommendations about how to streamline it.

Did you know that the code consists of some 1,395,000 words? That the Internal Revenue Service has issued almost 20,000 pages of regulations containing more than 8 million words? That, to help taxpayers with their 1999 returns, the IRS published some 649 forms, schedules, and separate instructions; 159 worksheets; and 340 other publications. It's all in the joint committee report, and it is sure to be a …