Richard Shelby: “Once again, today, tax time is upon us. It is April 17. We know April 15 is the magic day, but it has been extended…”

“Once again, today, tax time is upon us. It is April 17. We know April 15 is the magic day, but it has been extended because of when it fell. Today is the day everybody in America knows that the Federal Government income taxes are due. If you are like me, you spent way too much time completing your taxes this year. Our Tax Code and its accompanying regulations total tens of thousands of pages which are complicated, confusing, and costly to comply with. In fact, since we last had major reform in 1986 there have been more than 14,000 changes to the Tax Code. Average taxpayers should not have to pour over tax regulations for hours on end or pay a tax professional to complete their tax documents. In the IRS' own estimation, the average time burden for all taxpayers filing a 1040 is 30 hours. Unfortunately, what this means is that for most people is that in addition to paying the Government every year, they need to pay someone or buy software to tell them exactly how much to pay their Government. Americans need a simple, common-sense solution. This is why I have introduced S. 1040, the Tax Simplification Act. The Tax Simplification Act establishes a flat income tax of 17 percent on all income and places real spending limits on the Federal Government.”