Washington, DC - Congressman Bob Goodlatte reintroduced bipartisan legislation, the Tax Code Termination Act, to abolish the Internal Revenue Code. He has been joined by over 40 members, both Republicans and Democrats, who have cosponsored his legislation.
“It has become abundantly clear that the tax code is no longer working in a fair manner for our nation’s citizens,” said Goodlatte. “Americans devote a total of 7.4 billion hours each year to comply with our current tax code. It is unfair, discourages savings and investment, and is impossibly complex. What we need is tax simplification.”
Congressman Goodlatte continued, “Last week in his State of the Union Address, President Obama said ‘the best thing we could do on taxes for all Americans is to simplify the individual tax code’. The President stated he was prepared to join both parties in simplifying our tax code. My bipartisan legislation, the Tax Code Termination Act, can be the impetus for overhauling our tax system.”
This legislation will repeal the entire tax code, except portions that deal with Social Security and Medicare, by December 31, 2015, and calls on Congress to approve a new Federal tax system by July of the same year. This legislation has already been passed twice by the House of Representatives, first in 1998 by a vote of 219-209 and then in 2000 by a vote of 229-187.
The National Taxpayer’s Union (NTU) reports that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) now lists more than 1,700 publications, forms and instructions on its website. The complexity of the Internal Revenue Code is often reported as one of the most serious problem facing taxpayers today. To further illustrate this point the IRS’s Taxpayer Advocate Service recently noted about 60 percent of individual taxpayers pay practitioners to prepare their returns and another 29 percent use tax software to assist them.
“Although many questions remain about the best way to reform our tax system, I am certain that if Congress is forced to address the issue we can create a tax code that is simpler, fairer, and better for our economy than the one we are forced to comply with today,” said Goodlatte.
Goodlatte continued, “America's future depends on overcoming the handicap of the current tax code. There is a widespread consensus that the current system is broken, and keeping it is not in America’s best interest. The Tax Code Termination Act will force Congress to finally debate and address fundamental tax reform. Whichever tax system is adopted, the key ingredients should be: a low rate for all Americans; tax relief for working people; protection of the rights of taxpayers and reduction in tax collection abuses; promotion of savings and investment; and encouragement of economic growth and job creation.”
The Tax Code Termination Act has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means for further consideration.
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