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Article: Tax reform: chasing the elusive dream.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Atlantic Economic Journal
- Article date:
- September 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Atlantic Economic Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"The task of comprehensive reform is monumental in its dimension and far reaching in its potential impact on our economic well-being."
[William E. Simon, 1977, p. 11]
Introduction
Twenty-eight years ago (1975), then Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon told a Tax Foundation audience that the "tax system was badly in need of a thorough overhaul. It had strayed far from the basic principles that ought to underlie any good tax system: equity, efficiency, and simplicity." Secretary Simon was referring to the federal individual income tax. According to Simon, the individual income tax code "has become a jungle of special-interest provisions." ...