Herman

Cain

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April 28, 2008

Obama’s Tax ‘Simplification’: Say Hello to Instant Audits

“Barack Obama will dramatically simplify tax fillings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in five minutes.”

It’s not the FairTax. It’s not the Flat Tax. It’s the Obama Tax.

You have to read past page one of Obama’s Economic Agenda (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/#tax-relief) to find this little utopian gem of doing your taxes in five minutes. Page one is naturally beautiful rhetoric and inspiring promises.

Obama’s rationale for making this possible is the fact that the IRS already receives Americans’ financial information directly from employers and banks. It’s required by law. What he did not tell you is that, in order for the IRS to complete your tax return, you would have to send the IRS all of your other itemized tax information and supporting schedules.

Voila! Instant IRS audits!

Of course Obama would make it optional for taxpayers to use this new IRS service. How long do you think the word “optional” would remain in the new Obama-motivated IRS regulation?

Here’s a hint. Democrats in Congress are already proposing to change the word “unpaid” to “paid” in the Family Medical Leave Act. And we are still waiting for the temporary withholding of income taxes passed in 1943 to go away. That was 65 years ago.

Some Obama supporters would contend that the IRS already provides this service with online filling. Maybe so for the 30 percent of filers who use only standard deductions, but this is not a reliable method for the 70 percent of us who have to use professional tax preparers because of the complexity of the income tax code.

And if you read even further into Obama’s Economic Agenda, you will discover five additional Obama government giveaways that total almost $10,000 per working family, who could qualify with an income of $50,000 a year or less.

Of course, his economic agenda does not point out that there are about 60 million taxpayers that would qualify for those government goodies.

That’s a tax increase of about $600 billion that the remaining 73 million taxpayers would have to pay if his goodies basket were approved by a likely Democratic-controlled Congress.

Each of these Obama government goodies would require additional instructions in the tax code, more documentation, more unproductive time for taxpayers and more opportunities for IRS intrusion and abuse.

If one continues to read even a little further past the economic agenda, you discover Barack Obama’s Plan for Small Business. It is also filled with beautiful rhetoric, inspiring promises and more government goodies, which will require more taxes and more instructions on how to take advantage of these new tax benefits.

Once again, how to finance all of these new goodies was conspicuously missing. That’s understandable, because it is not inspiring to talk about how he plans to pay for all of the new stuff, or what should be done about the oncoming federal entitlement-spending tsunami.

If this is Obama’s idea of tax simplification and stimulating the economy, I wonder what his solution would be for an economic freefall into a complete economic depression.

I don’t think I want to know.

I have not recovered from his simplification ideas.

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