Do you trust the federal government to prepare your taxes for you? Elizabeth Warren thinks so.
Should the Tea Party activists and others who have been harassed by the IRS for political reasons in recent years be expected to trust the agency with preparing their returns? Isn’t it bad enough that the IRS can use its power of audit?
Boston.com reported:
Elizabeth Warren thinks the IRS should fill out your tax returnsWith Monday’s tax filing deadline looming over many Americans’ weekends, Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s new bill may seem like a godsend.The Massachusetts Democrat introduced legislation Wednesday that would allow U.S. taxpayers to have the government do their taxes for them—for free.The conveniently timed “Tax Simplification Act of 2016” would direct the IRS to develop a free, online tax preparation and filing service, using tax information the IRS already has, which Americans could choose to use to have their taxes filed directly with the government, instead of using a third-party service, such as TurboTax.“This year, taxpayers will spend an average of 13 hours preparing and filing their returns, and will pay $200 for tax preparation services – a cost equal to almost 10 percent of the average federal tax refund,” Warren said in a statement.Since the IRS already gets individual wage statements (W2) from employers and 70 percent of taxpayers do not itemize deductions, according to Tax Policy Center, return-free filing could completely eliminate the requirement to file a tax return for 8 million to 60 million households, and make the process a lot simpler for others.It isn’t a particularly new idea. President Ronald Reagan endorsed the return-free filing in 1985. So did President Barack Obama during his 2008 campaign. Denmark, Spain, and Sweden, among other countries, already send their citizens pre-filled-out tax returns to be approved and sent back.
Something tells me that if Reagan was alive today, he might not agree with Warren’s proposal, in light of recent developments.
You also have to love the offering of socialist European countries as evidence that the idea works well in practice. I’m sure Bernie Sanders will be singing this same tune in no time.
If liberals are really concerned about how confusing our tax system has become, how about offering real tax reform or coming over to the idea of a simple flat tax instead?
Warren and other big government progressives are obviously banking on the hope that people have forgotten all about the IRS scandal and their allies in big media are doing everything they can to help.
One News Now reports:
Media on IRS scandal: ‘We know nothing!’There have been new developments in the IRS targeting scandal but if you watch the news on ABC, CBS or NBC, good luck hearing about it.That’s because it’s been more than 500 days since the broadcast news networks covered the scandal. According to a new study by Geoff Dickens, deputy research director at the Media Research Center, CBS and NBC last reported on the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS in October of 2014. ABC lagged way behind last covering it in May of that year, nearly 700 days ago.
Perhaps Senator Warren can get back to us when someone has been held accountable.
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