[March Poll] Do you care about tax simplification?

Posted on | March 10, 2010 | Comments Off

Somebody asked me whether Americans care about “the tax mess” — that is, the ungodly wreck of a tax code that we are tortured with every year around this time.

It’s an interesting question for me, for two reasons.

Reason number one: I can say that I sure hope they care, since I was just talking about this topic and, specifically, the bipartisan legislation recently introduced by Senators Judd Gregg and Ron Wyden to fix it, in my newsletters and this week’s podcast.

Reason number two: According to the research paper I recently wrote for the Microbusiness Research Institute, more microbusiness owners care, and they care more, about tax simplification than they do about lower tax rates.

All things considered, that’s really something, all by itself.

So, if somebody asks me if Americans care about tax simplification, I’d have to say that I have reason to believe that at least 1 in 7 of them do — that is, the number of individuals out there who are running or starting small businesses (according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor).

I also have a hunch, parenthetically, that you’ll find more citizens who care about tax simplification right now, while they’re wrestling with those ridiculous tax forms and the tortuous, incomprehensible instructions that often come with them.

The answer most people give to this question might be a little different in August.

Having said all that, and based on nothing other than being an American taxpayer, I would think that people do care about tax simplification — if, by tax simplification, they understand that we’re talking about simplifying the process of filing taxes, which is often much more painful than writing the check (or anticipating the refund).

Doing your taxes is one of those things that is similar to taking out the trash; nobody really enjoys doing it but we know it’s got to be done. Besides, when it’s finished, we get that pleasantly satisfied feeling of a yucky chore responsibly dispatched — at least, until next time.

But it transforms from being comparable to trash removal to being more comparable to root canal as your life gets more financially complicated. So, if you

  • run a business
  • have rental property
  • own stock in one or more corporations

or any number of other income producing activities, filing taxes can be simply awful.

Under those circumstances, who wouldn’t care about simplification?

But that’s just what I think. I want to know what you think. Hence, this month’s poll:

February Poll results:

Last month, I was curious to know your opinions about the state of Congressional Democrats’ ongoing attempts to pass some sort of health care reform package.

You surprised me. Evidently, many of you are happier with the current reform bill (which is the Senate version) than I would have thought. Over half of you (53%) felt Congress should pass the bill it’s got.

Another 35% of survey respondents want health care reform but they want Congress to scrap the current bill and start all over again from scratch.

The third most popular answer, which wasn’t really all that popular (11%), was that health care reform is needed but only after we throw this set of bums out and elected a new set of bums.

I guess that option was a little too extreme for most people.

In any event, thanks for your votes, folks!


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