WOODALL: The best alternative to Tax Day

There are few things that can hang a dark cloud over a beautiful spring day in the middle of April, but Tax Day certainly makes the cut. It’s a shame for many reasons, but perhaps none more than the fact that it simply doesn’t have to be this way.

Now we all know the day itself isn’t the real issue; it’s just the culmination of a broken, punitive system we know as the income tax. The good news is, however, we have the ability to fix or — as I prefer — replace it. It’s only a matter of will, and the American people are fed up with our broken system and demanding action.

So what’s the alternative? How do we do better? Some have proposed plans to reduce the complexity of your tax return and shrink the reach of the IRS. But at a time when America is wasting millions of hours and billions of dollars on compliance, and the IRS is more dangerous than it has ever been, nibbling around the edges of a failed system is not the answer. My plan is the FairTax, which would eliminate your tax return entirely, put the IRS out of business for good, and mark the largest transfer of power from Washington back to the American people in our history.

The FairTax, or H.R. 25, is a bill I introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that has far more support than any other major tax reform proposal in Congress. It would completely rip out our existing income tax structure and replace it with a national consumption tax on only new goods and services. Corporate, estate, and personal income taxes would all be gone. The payroll tax, which disproportionately hurts the most vulnerable families who are struggling to make ends meet, would disappear as well.

Tell Congress: Pass the Fair Tax Act of 2015! Sign the petition.