The Real Dog in Washington

by: the american conservative union | published: 04 15, 2009

Our news reports are overrun with stories about the Obama family's new White House dog.

But taxpaying Americans know the real dog in America is the IRS.

The IRS Tax code has the ability to get to and fetch the money in your paycheck even before you can.

Before you receive your pay, the Tax code imposes costs not only on you but your employer too, with FICA taxes of 15.3% half paid by you and the other half paid by your employer.  If you are a small business owner, you pay both.  Every dollar that goes to the IRS ends up in Washington for the politicians to spend.

Then there is federal withholding, where employers are required to do the job of the tax collector and take money out of paychecks before they even reach the employees.

The IRS Tax code, like a dog, can eat you out of house and home leaving behind a mess.

It is too complicated, it taxes too much, it is too unwieldy especially in an economy that needs a break.  We need change, we need it now and we need to send this message to Washington.

Help ACU tell IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Republican Ranking Member Chuck Grassley; House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel and Republican Ranking Member Dave Camp; along with all of the Members of the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation that we need a Smaller, Simpler, Fairer Tax Code NOW on this important ACU petition here.

Let's look at some unbelievable facts about our U.S. Tax code: 

• It has over 9 million words. To put that in perspective, the Bible has just over 750,000 words.
• The IRS now has over 100,000 government employees and it spends over $11 billion a year in taxpayer dollars just to implement the code.
• A Government Accountability report said IRS employees gave incorrect information to taxpayers almost 10% of the time over the last four years, because of the complexity of the code.
• It has been reported that those who wade through the complex tax code, pay on average $2,000 or more per year to subsidize those who don't pay their taxes or pay them incorrectly, according to testimony before the Senate finance committee. 

The Cato Institute said in 2003 alone , the U.S. "tax army" was bigger than the U.S. army in Iraq.  Income taxes were so complex there were up to 1.2 million paid tax preparers in the country - six times the number of troops in Iraq at that time. They noted, "The tax army includes legions of accountants, lawyers, and computer experts -- some of the best minds in the country. Unfortunately, their brainpower is adding little to the nation's standard of living."

The Government Accountability Office reported that 59% of all Americans actually had to hire a tax preparer just to do our taxes.  This is money that could be spent within families, or by small businesses in growing our economy.

We need a Smaller, Simpler, Fairer Tax Code NOW, help ACU send this message by signing the ACU petition here, now!

Our economy cannot afford the current IRS Tax code.

According to the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy, complying with the tax code costs all American businesses an average of almost $900 per employee.

The IRS estimates Americans spend 6.6 billion hours per year filling out tax forms-including 1.6 billion hours on the 1040 form alone.

The Tax Foundation estimates that the costs this year to the U.S. economy of complying with the tax code are almost $350 billion.

All of this money that could be put to work hiring more people, producing more goods and growing our economy.  All of the time complying with the code could be spent proactively growing our economy.

We need a Smaller, Simpler, Fairer Tax Code NOW, help ACU send this message by signing the ACU petition here, now!

And, as the liberals in Washington try to add pages and pages to the tax code in an effort to social engineer the economy, they are the ones struggling to pay their own taxes and understand tax forms.

Obama's own Treasury Secretary - the man actually responsible for running the IRS - has admitted to not paying over $40,000 in personal taxes on his own tax return.

Former Democrat Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who himself voted for numerous tax increases, was forced to withdraw from consideration to become Health and Human Services Secretary because he failed to pay more than $125,000 in taxes.

Obama's Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis had her own tax problems in her household.  When nominated her husband had to admit he had over $6,000 in local tax liens against his business.  So as others failed to pay federal taxes, others were struggling with local taxes.  And, there were others.

Were his administration official's federal tax problems a result of getting bad advice from the IRS?  Were they part of that close to 10% ... or were they hiding their income in the byzantine rules of the IRS tax code?

We need a Smaller, Simpler, Fairer Tax Code NOW, help ACU send this message by signing the ACU petition here, now!

The complex nature of the tax code allows liberals to also hide tax increases in the mix of tax forms and instructions.

If the American people had a simpler, fairer tax system we would know immediately if we were paying more or we were paying less.  We could hold our elected officials accountable for the tax increases and the wasteful spending they are thrusting on us.

The Obama administration has been spending money at a record pace, burying our nation in debt, and they appear to be moving quickly to spend more.

To pay for all of their new spending the Obama administration is going to increase taxes and decrease the amounts that can be deducted for charities at a time when our nation and our economy are hurting.

The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University reports that Obama's tinkering with the charitable deduction portions of the U.S. tax code alone will cost U.S. charities $4 billion a year in donations.

The result is four billion dollars more going to the Obama administration's bureaucrats instead of our nation's churches and charities.

We need a Smaller, Simpler, Fairer Tax Code NOW, help ACU send this message by signing the ACU petition here, now!

Simply put the teeth of the IRS tax code chews away at the incomes of every American. 

We cannot afford a tax code that costs billions to comply with and hurts every American business.

Help the ACU take the bite out of the U.S. Tax System.

Sign the ACU petition here, right now and support ACU in our efforts to reform the U.S. Tax code.

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