Law Commons^™

Introduction To The Tax Simplification Symposium, Stephen Black

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] "Ours is a voluntary tax system. That is, we rely, in large measure, upon the honesty of the citizens to report and pay the correct amount of tax. However, as another April 15 has come and gone, we realize that this reliance casts an increasingly larger and larger burden upon the citizens, even amidst some of the largest tax cuts in history. Why?

In 2000, 71 million Americans paid an estimated $14.7 billion to paid tax preparers.1 The most prevalent reason is that most Americans are afraid to have errors on their return. Despite the fact that the Internal …

Tax Simplification: So Necessary And So Elusive, Kenneth H. Ryesky

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] "Cries for tax simplification have long been heard from presidents, legislators, current and former government officials and the public. The judiciary has often expressed its frustrations in comprehending the tax statutes. The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) itself has had occasion to hesitate and waver in its interpretation and application of the tax statutes, and indeed, several IRS officials have admitted to retaining professional assistance to prepare their personal income tax returns.

Though nearly everyone seems to advocate tax simplification, the goal remains elusive. Tax litigation continues to abound, and sometimes, where words alone do not suffice, judges augment textual …

Designing A Work-Friendly Tax System, Jonathan Barry Forman

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] "Taxes tend to influence individual choices between labor and leisure, and high effective marginal tax rates on earned income tend to discourage work. In particular, the empirical evidence shows that high effective marginal tax rates tend to discourage work by low- and moderate-income individuals, especially those that are trying to work their way out of the welfare system. Unfortunately, the current federal tax system often imposes its highest effective marginal tax rates on just those individuals. The purpose of this paper is to suggest some simple ways to reduce those high effective marginal tax rates. One approach would be …