George Voinovich: “the time for a honest, national discussion of fundamental tax reform is long overdue. Each year, April 15 looms on the…”

“the time for a honest, national discussion of fundamental tax reform is long overdue. Each year, April 15 looms on the calendar as a day of reckoning for American taxpayers facing a laborious and needlessly stressful process. Since enacting the Tax Reform Act of 1986--legislation intended to simplify the filing process for taxpayers--more than 15,000 provisions have been added to the Internal Revenue Code. The irony of our complex Tax Code is that in order to take advantage of all the benefits and deductions for which they qualify, Americans have to spend a significant amount of money to pay someone or something to do their taxes for them--thus decreasing the value of their return. According to the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, only 13 percent of taxpayers are able to file without the help of either a tax preparer or computer software. The Tax Foundation estimates that in 2005, individuals, businesses, and nonprofits spent an estimated 6 billion hours complying with the Federal income tax code, with an estimated compliance cost of more than $265 billion. This amounts to imposing a 22-cent tax compliance surcharge for every dollar the income tax system collects. Tinkering with the current Tax Code won't get the job done. Tinkering is what got us into this mess in the first place.”