Wednesday, October 10, 2012

How is this "simpler"?

It makes a fair degree of intuitive sense that eliminating some number of tax credits/deductions would make the tax code simpler.  If Romney were to eliminate, say, the the mortgage interest deduction and the charitable contribution deduction, the tax code is of course simpler, since all the laws pertaining to those deductions could be wiped off the books, leaving a shorter, simpler set of laws.

But what of Romney's idea to limit the overall value of deductions to $17,000 (or $25,000-$50,000)?  Such a change doesn't make anything simpler, and in fact adds another layer of complexity.  Actually, Romney aides have since expanded on the idea by suggesting that the $17,000 cap is in fact only one of three caps, along with a cap on personal exemptions and another on health insurance.

Well that's not any simpler at all.  Far from it.  We'd still have all the same complexities we have now, plus three different caps to deal with.

1 comment:

nyb said...

Yeah, Romeny isn't serious about fixing anything. If he really wanted to get serious, just propose a very simple tax. 3 brackets. 5%, 25%, 40% of all gross income. No deductions. None! Can you imagine how many accountants and tax attorneys, not to mention IRS agents, that it would force to find meaningful work?

Romney's just another shill for the ruling political classes (Obama's the same, after all he's funded by Goldman Sachs).