Band-aid solutions to tax complexity problem

On April 15, President Obama addressed the nation on the issue of tax simplification.

The Wall Street Journal article indicated one proposal under consideration would exempt up to 40% of Americans from having to file a tax return. After contacting the article's authors, I learned that the plan was written by Austan Goolsbee and adopted by the Obama campaign.

Titled "The Simple Return" plan, the proposal would not actually exempt up to 40% of Americans from filing a return. Rather, it would make it so the only action required by the average taxpayer would be "checking the numbers, signing the return, and then either sending a check or getting a refund."

A few of the key points in the plan:

• The proposal assumes the tax law remains as is, with the same mass of deductions, credits, exemptions, and so forth.
• The program would be voluntary. Anyone who preferred to fill out his own tax form, or to pay a tax preparer to do it, would just throw the Simple Return away and file his taxes the way he does now.
• The IRS would prepare a "Simple Return" with the data it receives from employers and banks (including froms W-2, 1099, and 1098), which the taxpayer could then just review and sign.
• California has already implemented a pilot program of the "Simple Return" plan, which it calls "Ready Return."

I have just read this over in the last couple of days, so I'm far from qualified to render an expert opinion. Still, I'll go ahead an render my inexpert one:

This seems to be a valiant effort to make the existing system more manageable for the average taxpayer. But it treats the symptoms rather than the disease. The real problem is the complicated, convoluted, mind-numbing tax law.

Rather than trying to lessen the headache of working within a broken system, let's try to fix the system itself.

Unfortunately, that's where my "wisdom" (or foolishness, depending on who you ask) runs out. I hope to read more about others' ideas for real tax reform over the summer. Stay tuned.