J.C. Watts: “the U.S. Tax Code is a mess. When the income tax was first introduced in 1914, the entire Code was 14 pages long and the…”

“the U.S. Tax Code is a mess. When the income tax was first introduced in 1914, the entire Code was 14 pages long and the top tax rate was 7 percent. Today it is nearly 4,000 pages and constantly changing. While last year alone we managed to add 334 pages, create 285 new sections, and add 824 amendments, that is bad enough, but it is not the whole story. The code alone is only a part of the law. The rest comes in the form of implementing regulations and tax court decisions which make the code even more incomprehensible. It literally grows every day. Some estimates put the cost of compliance at over $250 billion per year. That is $250 billion of unproductive effort. Think what that could do for the economy if it was channeled into other areas. A majority of Americans want an end to the current code and we have a responsibility to take this problem head-on. We cannot continue with business as usual. We need a national debate to build a consensus for sweeping change. The Tax Code Termination Act is the first essential step in breaking free from the cycle of incrementalism which has produced the current code.”