\-\-\-\--Original Message\-\-\-\--

From: James Mullin
\[[[mailto:jmulli59@mac.com]{.underline}](mailto:jmulli59@mac.com)\]

Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2005 12:47 AM

To: comments

Cc: Gloria

Subject: Response to request for comments by the Federal Tax Reform
Panel on 02/16/05

From:

James T. Mullin

La Mesa CA 91941-6119

Submitted 03/06/05

I make these comments as an individual citizen as well as a businessman.
I may be one of a rare breed of citizen who does not mind paying taxes
to enable my country and community to run well, smoothly and
efficiently. I do not believe in the existence of ³free lunches.²

1\. ³Income Tax Time² is an annual period of anxiety and, ultimately, of
feelings of alienation from my government. It goes without further,
detailed comment that the tax system from the vantage point of the
individual citizen and the small businessman is a monster of complexity.
It contributes nothing to the running of my business. It distracts me
from attention and application to that business, and as such a
distraction it literally is a drag on enterprise. For a large company
with lawyers and an accounting department, perhaps the tax system can be
seen as an engine for reducing unemployment. But not in a small
business, and certainly not for an individual. The ³time out² required
for the preparation and submitting of tax returns is time lost to to
productive business. This has been my constant experience for 45 years.

2\. Given the Rube Goldberg complexity of the system it is not
surprising that ³unfairness² going in multiple directions is built into
the system. Even when unfairness might not be objectively present, the
impression of unfairness often exists in the mind of the taxpayer. The
system lacks the necessary transparency. Every year the small individual
is encouraged to short change the tax man in a million ways that in the
end dishonors the individual¹s integrity. At the other end, the big
taxpayer ³games² the system endlessly, providing ample fodder for hating
not only the big fellow, but the government which allows him to legally
³game² the system.

If you have to be told examples of unfairness, you have not been living
in this country very long. In the end, the prime example of unfairness
is the entire system itself. It encourages and rewards all manner of
chicanery large and small.

3\. In the business scene, my productivity \-- every year \-- must take
a backseat to tax preparation. Once I have prepared all the
documentation, I must pay for the final tax preparation of the requisite
forms. That is an added and needless ³tax² on my business even though I
eventually get ³credit² for it. Who needs such credit?

As an individual and as a businessman, I have to restrict my private and
business travel at tax time in order to supervise the unwholesome task.

4\. There are those who favor the present, insane and torturous system
precisely because it is so painful. They entertain the childish notion
that payment of taxes should be painful. Otherwise you will not be aware
of how the government is spending your money. Hogwash! An adult can keep
watch on his government without pain.

Efforts at reform should strive for simplicity and ³painlessness.²
Achieving that will remove the ³alienation factor¹ from the system. The
present system forces the citizen (who ought to be encouraged in every
way to appreciate his government) into an adversarial relationship which
harms both the government and the individual. ³Sales² or some form of
³consumer² tax is persuasive in this instance.

Reform should eradicate, to the greatest extent possible, the cumbersome
and cancerous bureaucracy involved in collecting the taxes. One must not
consider lightly the savings accrued by the elimination of the IRS.

Reform of the federal system should encourage like reform in the
appropriate state systems.

I plead with you: entertain commonsense; be courageous; do not blindly
follow the ³cow² in front of you. You owe me that. And you owe your
country.