ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 21, 1997 TAG: 9704210108
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
Most taxpayers would be better served if Congress would quit trying to dismantle the IRS and instead simplify the tax code.
WITH THE tax deadline past, gallows humor about the Internal Revenue Service is passe. Time for Newt Gingrich to drop his suggestion to fix it by cutting the number of agents by 60 percent.
Congress, instead, should be modernizing the IRS, and simplifying the tax code.
Every year, the agency fails to find $130 billion in taxes that are owed - enough to wipe out the federal budget deficit. This uncollected money increases the burden on honest, tax-paying wage earners.
Last year's budget cut looks foolish, given reports this year of IRS offices where photocopying paper is doled out by the sheet, reference materials are unavailable, required travel has been curtailed, hiring standards have been lowered and training has been reduced.
This is the picture of an agency battered by critics who seem to have little interest in improving its tax-enforcement ability. If, as studies show, every dollar spent on tax enforcement yields anywhere from $2 to $12 in return, why not pour in resources that would be repaid many times over?
Gingrich, faced with the threat of an IRS investigation himself, rails about "how arrogant and how intrusive IRS agents are getting." But abuses of power are rare. Better to weed out individuals who act improperly than to cripple the service.
One congressman, Republican Sam Johnson of Texas, leaves no doubt about his intent. He wants to eliminate the government's authority to collect an income tax. Others want to replace the income tax with a simpler system they think would be fairer. Fellow Texas Republicans Dick Armey and Bill Archer propose a consumption tax or a national sales tax.
The GOP is right about the need for tax simplification. Since the simplification of 1986, Congress again has made the code increasingly complex, even as it has eaten away at the resources needed to enforce it. Flat-tax proposals are made attractive by their sheer simplicity.
But they would also bring huge tax breaks to those who need it least, the wealthiest Americans.
A progressive income tax remains the fairer route. But it should be simplified so it can be more easily complied with - and more easily enforced.
LENGTH: Short : 47 linesby CNB