William Tauzin: “The IRS contains now in its code and regulations 5.5 million words, 17,000 pages. It was a pretty hefty chest we throw…”

“The IRS contains now in its code and regulations 5.5 million words, 17,000 pages. It was a pretty hefty chest we throw over into Boston Harbor today. It is so complex that it is a wonder anybody understands it. In fact in 1986, if you recall, Ronald Reagan offered us a plan called simplified income taxes, and that plan was passed. It reduced the rates of taxation from 14 down to about 2. Well, guess what has happened since 1986 again? Since 1986 this Congress made 4,000 individual changes in that income tax code of 1986. It is now up to five rates and growing daily, and today we are told that Americans have to work on average until May 9 just to pay taxes in America--if they can figure them out and file their forms correctly. And if the tax forms are filed, and the IRS decides that you did something wrong, guess what happens in America? Unlike a Federal court, where you might be indicted and yet presumed innocent until a jury finds you guilty, with the IRS we created, you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent. It is the most un-American system I think we could ever devise in a country that was founded on the principles of liberty and freedom.”