Tax Pros Say Simplify Code

In a recent poll by RIA Group, tax practitioners were asked, If you could make one change to the Internal Revenue Code, what would it be? The answers confirmed the new mantra of practitioners and taxpayers alike: Simplify the tax system. The message is the same as that espoused by the AICPA.

The survey revealed that professionals agree with lawmakers that taxes are necessary but, according to Alan Harris, RIA Group senior vice-president, few agree that the ways the taxes are collected are simple, fair and equitable.

More than 41% (193 out of 467) of the respondents to the online survey called for radical change in the tax system. Of those, more than half were proponents of simplification.

Radical change was also needed in other areas according to survey results: The three most desired were implementing a flat tax (20.7%), changing the alternative minimum tax (16.1%) and replacing the tax code with a national sales tax (9.3).

One respondent had this suggestion for improving the tax system: Make it a statutory requirement that all members of Congress prepare their own tax returns so they have a vested interest in the complexity they create.