I don't see how the US Federal Tax Code could get more complicated without just inserting pure gibberish into it.
The thing is, most of the tax code doesn't apply to everyday citizen. The really complicated stuff only applies to a certain number and I'm sure they have well paid people doing their best to avoid those sections.
The easy way to get people riled up about taxes? Remove withholding from paychecks and force people to write that big check every April. Then you'll get an uproar since most people have no idea how much in taxes they pay. But that's likely not the point you're trying to make.
> "The easy way to get people riled up about taxes? Remove withholding from paychecks and force people to write that big check every April. Then you'll get an uproar since most people have no idea how much in taxes they pay. But that's likely not the point you're trying to make."
This would have the desired effect, but also others. Mostly that the IRS would suddenly have a lot of individuals who owed money to the government but couldn't pay it. I agree with this in principle, but the current system has trained (intentionally, I would argue) people to not think about what they pay in taxes or what it gets used for. Suddenly reverting to a system that demands financial planning and responsibility from individuals isn't workable. It takes time.
That number is already shown on W-2s and copied to the tax return. I guess it's easier to not care about the number than it would be to not care about a check.
One thing that would happen is that a lot more people would come up short at tax time.
And yet if you ask people how much they pay taxes they probably don't know.
They may know how much they take home and how much they get back on their return, but the dollar amount they pay in taxes? I would bet most don't know.
Oh, I agree with that. I was just pointing out that the information is already pretty available (It isn't actually on the W-2, that's just withholding, but it's a line item on the 1040). To me that at least hints at people not believing they can do much to change it, rather than being completely oblivious.
The thing is, most of the tax code doesn't apply to everyday citizen. The really complicated stuff only applies to a certain number and I'm sure they have well paid people doing their best to avoid those sections.
The easy way to get people riled up about taxes? Remove withholding from paychecks and force people to write that big check every April. Then you'll get an uproar since most people have no idea how much in taxes they pay. But that's likely not the point you're trying to make.