With Washington's recent emphasis on Social Security, overhauling the complex IRS tax code has been relegated to second-tier status. That needs to change.
Serious consideration needs to be given to not only reforming the IRS but to replacing the current tax code.Revamping the IRS must be a top priority and should be given the resources to allow it to be done as quickly as possible. Trying to understand the complex tax code, which consists of nearly 10,000 pages, is impossible for IRS agents, let alone the general public.
Because of that it likely will be more productive over time to replace it than to spend many dollars and hours reforming it.
Republicans are launching another effort to do just that. Rep. Steve Largent, R-Okla., and Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., are the main sponsors of bills to eliminate the 5.5 million-word tax code by Dec. 31, 2003. Their theory is that establishing a date for the end of the current tax code system will force lawmakers to address the issue.
While it's true, as Hutchinson notes, that "all of us work better with deadlines," making a change just for the sake of change is not wise unless there is a substantial improvement to the original product.
That change needs to take place prudently. Abolishing the current system should only be done if there is something better to replace it. Dissolving the IRS should not take place until a new program has been studied and is ready to be implemented. Maybe that can take place by the GOP's target date of Dec. 31, 2003. It surely won't if lawmakers from either party fail to swiftly and properly address the tax code issue.
In the meantime, Congress and the Clinton administration need to focus on making substantial and significant changes to the current code. They started that process following hearings in 1997 that detailed various abuses by IRS agents. Now they need to continue it with the goal of eventually reforming, if not replacing, the IRS.