Providing Needed Relief to Taxpayers
Many Americans dread April 15th due to the complexity of our tax code. Unfortunately, taxpayers are not only burdened by the high costs of compliance but are also greatly concerned with the lack of accountability displayed by the very agency charged with collecting taxes.
The current tax code is comprised of more than 10,000 pages of ever-changing laws and regulations and costs taxpayers more than $168 billion to comply annually. In addition to the costs associated with filing, taxpayers and businesses spend more than seven billion hours each year complying with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requirements. This figure does not even include the millions of additional hours spent responding to IRS notices or audits.
In addition to an unfair tax code, the IRS is under scrutiny for violating taxpayers’ First Amendment rights. While Congress continues to thoroughly investigate the actions of IRS employees, this issue is not resolved. We have held numerous hearings and continue to review thousands of documents. Most importantly, we cannot allow this type of misconduct to ever happen again.
On Tax Day the House passed seven bills referred by the Ways and Means Committee, on which I serve, to stop IRS abuses. These bills cut through red tape at the agency with needed reforms, such as making politically-motivated action a fireable offense and ensuring private citizens whose information is illegally leaked by IRS employees can be updated on the investigation. These efforts to clean up the IRS provide an opportunity to rein in an agency which has lost all credibility with Americans and begin to restore public trust.
Another issue of great concern to Nebraska’s farmers, ranchers and small business owners is the estate tax, more commonly known as the death tax. Recently, the owners of a second-generation manufacturing business in western Nebraska with 35 employees told me they fear the death tax could devastate their business. Through more than one generation, the family reinvested profits in growing their business to provide additional opportunity in their community. This is the kind of decision-making the tax code should encourage, not penalize.
Agriculture, particularly raising cattle and crops such as corn, is a land and capital intensive process. These Nebraskans are not sitting on piles of cash; rather, their assets are the land and equipment they use to help feed our nation and the world. They pay income taxes on what they earn and high property taxes on their land on an annual basis. This week, the House voted to permanently repeal the death tax and stop this harmful form of double taxation.
These bills are important steps in the right direction, but there is still extensive work to be done. In my role on the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over taxes, I remain committed to overhauling our outdated, uncompetitive and unfair tax code. A plan which simplifies the code would allow us to lower rates and reduce the massive cost of compliance, which would benefit our entire economy.
Though the 2015 tax season has drawn to a close, we will continue working on legislation in the House to both simplify our tax code and prevent further abuses by the IRS. By providing needed relief to hardworking taxpayers, Congress can help make April 15 a more bearable day for all.