Good News, Tax Evaders! The IRS Can’t Keep Up
This is the name of an article by Jay Starkman, a CPA, that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on February 15, 2022. Mr. Starkman points out:
- The Internal Revenue Service is the motor that keeps America’s government running, and it is sputtering.
- Its computer systems are more than 50 years old.
- Phone calls go unanswered and correspondence takes almost a year to process.
- National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins told Congress that as of May 2021, the IRS had a backlog of more than 35 million tax returns requiring manual processing—including returns filed electronically—and nearly five million pieces of unprocessed paper correspondence.
- The IRS core tax-processing system was created in the 1960s and is antiquated.
- Ms. Collins told Congress that the agency recently advertised 5,000 openings for return processors and other jobs and has filled only 179.
- Ms. Collins said that out of 150 million calls last tax season, 7% were answered. Only 3% of the 85 million callers seeking help with the individual tax Form 1040 reached a representative.
- A May 2021 report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that 42% of printers and copiers at three IRS tax-processing centers last March were unusable or broken.
- Because the IRS lacks scanning technology, staffers type in data for many paper returns.
- The IRS is on the verge of collapse.
WHAT THE ARTICLE ISN’T TELLING US
Like many commentators on the IRS, Mr. Skillman doesn’t ask the key question—WHY DO WE KEEP PROPPING UP A SYSTEM THAT HAS CLEARLY FAILED WHEN WE CAN GET RID OF THE INCOME TAX AND DO AWAY WITH THE IRS ALTOGETHER?
If Mr. Skillman was dealing with an automobile engine that had as many serious problems as the IRS has, it’s a virtual certainty that he would conclude that the best course of action would be to either buy a new engine or replace the entire car.
Repairing the broken engine makes sense only if there’s no way to replace it, and there’s a reasonable chance that the repairs would work.
This should be the same analysis that Congress makes in deciding whether or not to spend the money “trying to fix” the IRS.
The first question is simple. DO WE NEED THE IRS IN ORDER TO FUND THE GOVERNMENT?
The answer is even simpler—NO!
As long as there’s a viable alternative, the government doesn’t need the IRS. And we have a much better alternative to the federal income tax—the FAIRtax! The FAIRtax is not an abstract concept. It’s actual legislation—HR 25. It would be simple for Speaker Pelosi to send it to the House Ways and Means Committee for hearings.
The second question is: Can the IRS be fixed and become an effective force against evasion without becoming even more tyrannical and intrusive on our privacy and rights?
The answer is also simple—NO—NOT IF YOU WANT TO RETAIN ANY OF OUR CONSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS!
If the answers are this simple, why doesn’t Congress immediately start work on replacing the income/payroll tax system with the FAIRtax?
The answer is obvious—the D.C. Elites, their minions in Congress and their lapdog media are all desperate to keep the income/payroll tax in place because they benefit from it.
CONCLUSION
To people who live in the real world, we have plenty of problems to deal with. If we see that something we don’t need is broken, we throw it out and move on.
For example, most of us have been replacing our incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs which cost about the same but last 10 times as long. It would be not only more expensive to keep purchasing incandescent bulbs but would also increase our utility cost.
When we hear people from the think tanks and the media wax eloquently about how the IRS needs to be fixed and how much it will cost and on and on, we should recognize that these people are really telling us to not purchase LED lights but to continue buying incandescent lights even though they are not as good and cost much more in the long run.
The incandescent lights (the IRS) will never be as efficient or save money like the LED lights (the FAIRtax).
But it is even worse. If we didn’t need to purchase any light bulbs, then we wouldn’t.
The truth is that every dollar spent on “modernizing” the IRS is a wasted dollar because it will never allow the IRS to really slow the escalating income/payroll tax evasion.
However, the worst reason for investing more money in the IRS is that the income/payroll tax is no longer needed. If we eliminate the income/payroll tax system, we don’t need the IRS.
To the rest of us, if we can eliminate an expense and actually get a better system, it is, as my grandson says, a no-brainer.
Alexis de Tocqueville, the 19th century French historian, wrote about what he observed in America. He said, The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.
The income/payroll tax system is broken and no longer working—we can’t repair it but we can replace it.
Join us and TAKE BACK CONTROL OF OUR COUNTRY—NOT WITH BULLETS BUT WITH THE ELIMINATION OF ONE OF THE BIGGEST THREATS TO OUR LIBERTY AND ECONOMIC PROSPERITY—THE INCOME/PAYROLL TAX.
We all should remember Edmund Burke’s warning that applies to our efforts to TAKE BACK CONTROL, “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
If you want to prevent the IRS from being further weaponized to punish those of us who may object to the D.C. opinions and dictates of what is good for us, then help us PASS THE FAIRTAX!
The IRS will be gone and we will pay our taxes when we make purchases. WE and not D.C. Elites will decide how much federal tax we pay!
If you have friends who don’t know about the FAIRtax, send them to FAIRtax.org. Have them watch the white boards under “How It Works” and, if they agree, ask them to please join us.
Then contact your Members of Congress and the President and demand that Congress pass -the FAIRtax—the only fair tax
Remember, if we don't continue to tell the truth and demand a change, then this quote from George Orwell's 1984 may foretell our children's future:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
Is it hopeless? When confronted with a seemingly impossible problem, remember the statement attributed to the author George Bernard Shaw who wrote, You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”
Isn’t it time for us to ask, “Why not?”
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