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Article: President wants your ideas for simplifying tax code Our current tax code is a complex and cluttered mess that discourages economic growth and vitality
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- March 17, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2005 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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Consider this: The tax code contains at least nine provisions to
encourage education and more than a dozen separate tax-advantaged
retirement savings plans.
Within the nine separate education provisions there are three
separate definitions of qualifying higher education expenses, four
different measures of income and six different income thresholds. It
takes 83 pages of instructions, flow charts and work sheets for the
IRS to explain these rules.
Similarly, each of the dozen or more retirement vehicles has its
own set of complicated rules for eligibility, contribution limits,
withdrawals, and rollovers.
The end result of this proliferation of special tax provisions and
rules is confusion and ...