David Thomas: “recently we had a day called Tax Day. I think most of us thought a lot about taxes. We talked a lot about the process of…”

“recently we had a day called Tax Day. I think most of us thought a lot about taxes. We talked a lot about the process of filling in our tax forms and paying our taxes. I do not know about everyone else, but I came out of that with the renewed notion that we certainly need to take a look at making taxes more simple and that we need to simplify the Tax Code. The problem is, of course, that we are moving just exactly in the opposite way. We spent 7 or 8 years talking about simplification of the Tax Code, and every year it becomes less so. I hope we can address making the Tax Code simpler. The purpose of the Tax Code is to raise money in a fair way. The definition of a tax is a charge of money imposed by authority upon persons or property for public purposes. You have to have taxes. No one argues with that. But it is not a voluntary act. It is an imposition of authority upon people, and the imposition--in many cases, because of the process--is unreasonable. I am persuaded that the current Tax Code remains overly complicated, burdensome, and frustrating to the American taxpayer.”