My plan to flood the White House “We The People” petition site with tightly targeted tax simplification proposals has not taken off. That does not mean I am giving up, although I am holding back on a revenue neutral idea that would carve thousands and thousands of words out of the Code. Bob Baty’s proposal to Repeal Code Section 107, which allows clergy to exclude amounts designated as housing allowances from income, has been archived. There were 2,310 signatures.
My own proposal to reduce the number of individual filing statuses still has not made it into the search-able database. I was heartened to see that the signature count has almost broken into double digits. Even though there are no petitions that fit my criteria of being tightly focused simplifications, I’m still watching the site. There are a few tax related petitions. I can’t get excited about them, but maybe you can. Even better it might inspire you to start one of your own that I will promote. Here you go.
Tax The Churches
There are two petitions, here and here, to eliminate exempt status for all churches. One of the petitions indicates that we might raise 71 billion per year that way. There are also a couple of petitions to revoke the exempt status of particular churches. There are a couple about Westboro Baptist church. This one is the most popular. Scientology also is the subject of a petition . There is a petition to get the IRS to crack down on churches that engage in political activity.
Do A Little Research Before You Start Your Petition
There is a petition to tax the sale of guns and ammunition. It is really not my area of expertise, but it did not take me long to confirm that there already is a federal tax on the sale of guns and ammunition. Code Section 4181. It is 10% on pistols and revolvers and 11% on ammunition and other firearms.
Darn More Research For Me
The title of the petition to “End The Hollywood Tax Cuts” had me puzzled. It is referring to a 20% excise tax on motion picture revenue that was repealed in the mid-fifties. I think it is a little disingenuous to refer to something that has not been around for more than half a century, as a tax cut. I’ll have to do a little bit of study on that one, but maybe one of my commenters will help me out.
I Hate This One
There is a petition to have the President sit down for a talk about taxes with Neal Boortz, author of The Fair Tax Book. I just broke down and sprung for eight bucks to get in on my Kindle. Now I’m going to have read the damn thing, which is going to interfere with my project of finishing the Repairman Jack corpus. Here is a blurb on The Fair Tax Book:
In the face of the outlandish American tax burden, talk-radio firebrand Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder are leading the charge to phase out our current, unfair system and enact the FairTax Plan — replacing the federal income tax and withholding system with a simple 23 percent retail sales tax. This dramatic revision of the current system, which would eliminate the reviled IRS, has already caught fire in the American heartland, with more than 600,000 taxpayers signing on in support of the plan.
That part about eliminating the “reviled IRS”. After years of study I have concluded that even though complexity contributes to non-compliance, the primary reason that people choose to not pay taxes is because they would prefer to keep the money for themselves. Something tells me that the agents of the new organization charged with enforcing a 23% retail sales tax will not be beloved.
Just to be clear, the reason I hate this one is because I feel obligated to read the book. Who knows ? Maybe I will learn to love the idea.
We Need More Holidays
There are two non-tax petitions that have me really intrigued. One is to make the Monday following Super Bowl a national holiday. I am not much of a sports fan myself, but I am very impressed at how much sports pulls the country together. I’m amazed at how people from different parts of the country will instantly bond because they each know all sorts of arcane things about the other person’s teams. And nothing seems bigger than the Super Bowl. The fact that they use Roman Numbers to keep track of it is proof enough. XLVII actually means something to millions of people. Wow. Nonetheless, the holiday that I am really pulling for is International Talk Like A Pirate Day.
Arragh mateys you can be following me on twitter @peterreillycpa.
Originally published on Forbes.com Jan 27th, 2013