Beverly Boykin

Marlowe Heights, Maryland

# Get Rid of Loopholes and Itemized Deductions -- Have One Flat Percentage that everyone pays

Get rid of the myriad loopholes and itemized deductions which some
people can take while others cannot due to:

1.  their various income levels i.e. too low to make certain purchases,
investments, take vacations and do the things upper income people can
enjoy yet claim those same things as tax deductions, and lower their tax
liability below that of that low income person;

2.  life, health, family circumstances; employment situations i.e.
self-employed vs employee of someone or a company; type of employment
i.e. outside salesman vs inside sales clerk etc  

 

Those myriad loopholes and deductions turns the tax system into some
kind of lottery where if you are lucky enough to be in a position to
afford to do certain things, you can bring your tax burden down lower
than people in lower income brackets yet you have more and get even more
back. 

 

This current Tax System creates fear that you may get audited if you
take every deduction you are entitled to; and concern that you may be
paying more than you should by not taking all of the deductions you are
entitled to, also, due to lack of knowledge; and that your preparer may
not be informing you of all you could take out of concern for
Raising RED Flags triggering audits requiring them to have to defend
their tax preparation work. 

 

You\'re at the mercy of the Egos if the Tax Auditor who may try to use
their position to take rightful deductions from you because their job
requires them to recoup a certain volume of money with their audits. So
somebody is not going to be treated fairly even though everyone audited
may have been correct in their prepartions of their tax returns.   

 

Years ago I was audited for following the allowable amortization
schedule for my rental property which was of the age that it had
\"outlived it\'s useful life expectancy\" of 45 years old.  My property
was over 70 years old, so, according to the IRS CODE, I could amortize
that property over the life of the mortgage rather than over 45 years. 
My mortgage was a 6 1/2 year mortgage as I put half down when I
purchased the property, and got it rather cheap because it was in run
down condition.  I fixed it up, rented out part of it and lived in the
other part.  While I had earned income with the property, I had more
deductions than income due to the portion of the repairs and the portion
of the amortization that I was allowed ACCORDING TO THE IRS CODES.  I
was also able to go back 3 years taxes, according to the IRS
Publication, and got a refund from those years.

 

I was audited; and despite the fact that I brought with me the IRS
Publications which explained how to do the accelerated amortization
based on the length of the mortgage on income property over 45 years
old, neither the crooked IRS Auditor nor his crooked boss would admit
that I was correct and just let me go.  They began obviously making up
codes, quoting those to me, but refusing to show it to me in writing
when I demanded to see those codes in writing, after all I\'d shown them
the IRS Publications I was following.  Their excuse was the codes they
were quoting were in books in their basement and he didn\'t have the
time to go get them, but that I could take his word for it.  My position
to both of them was that they needed to show me in writing what they
were telling me.  They never did. 

 

In order to leave their office, as I could see they were trying to take
advantage of me with their IRS positions, I told them to \"file me a
Deficiency, and that I\'d see them in Tax Court\".  I went to an
Attorney who pointed out that for the sum of money involved, it would
cost more for him to represent me.  He told me to just maintain my
posture as I was correct.  It was very frightening facing this alone as
I could see that these IRS guys were liars determined to gouge money out
of me. 

 

They began calling my home hounding me to pay.  I maintained my
position, but, waited in fear of what may happen next.  After a period
of time, they had some other guy call claiming to be a Regional Manager
who wanted me to agree to settle for a lesser amount.  I refused because
I knew I was correct (and probably didn\'t claim everything I actually
could have due to lack of knowledge).  More calls came where they would
whittle the figure down a little more on this call, and a little more on
the next but always breathing threats of what it would be like if they
took me to tax court. 

 

I got tired of the calls and living in fear of the calls and not knowing
how or when this was going to end, so I caved in and paid what they
offered to settle for just to get this off me and stop the calls.  I
felt taken advantage of, resentful of the IRS and the whole damn tax
system.  After all, I only claimed what the IRS Publications said I
could.  There still hangs in the back of my mind, when I think about
this situation, could I have won and not paid them anything if I had
just held out a little longer?  But, the fear, the anxiety, the
sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach when I heard them on the
other end of the phone made me want to just get it over with. Why should
an American Citizen in a \"So-called\" Democratic country have to live
in fear and anxiety of IRS abuse?

 

Eliminate all those codes and have everybody - employer or employee,
outside salesman or inside sales clerk, the rich, upper income and lower
income - have EVERYBODY pay the same flat per centage of their income -
no deductions or itemizations.  Don\'t tell me employers need to deduct
expenses in order to stay in business. They will stay in business
without itemized deductions because they want to rather than close up
their businesses and work for someone else. If the Tax Rate Percentage
is fair, their tax liability will be low enough for them to pay it and
stay in business.

The incomes that should not be Taxed are Social Security, Supplemental
Security Income, Public Welfare, Unemployment Income; money earned on
the sale of your home or other personal property which you paid for with
taxed dollars.  So what if you make some untaxed profit?  The government
shouldn\'t be tracking every penny we make anyway.  This is suppose to
be a \"voluntary tax system\". 

 

Furthermore, every 7th year should be tax free.  The 7th year wouldn\'t
be the same year for everybody, so, it\'s not like every 7th year the
government doesn\'t get any money.

 

The government needs to cut out WASTE of our tax dollars giving money to
businesses, megaconglomerate corporations, and to farmers not to grow
food; and farmers to grow tobacco.  All the Pork needs to be cut out. 
Stop supplementing mad scientists studying ridiculous crap like \"The
Sex Life of a Firefly\", \"Homosexuality in Rats\".  The people should
vote on what grants should be given. Everyone should be entitled to a
free College Education.  Congress needs to work more speedily on the
business of Congress and stop wasting time intervening in people\'s
personal life issues and wasting time filibustering; and stop making
Congressional Representation a lifetime job. 

 

The U. S. government needs to stop U. S. Imperialism - it is too costly
in wasted money and devasted lives and limbs of young men and women for
the benefit of old men and their corporate croonies.  It is not the job
of the

United States to Democratize the world.  When people want Democracy,
they will stand up in their own countries and fight themselves to get
it.  Furthermore, we don\'t have Democracy in the United States, so by
what Authority does the U S government maim and kill to force Democracy
in other countries?  Since the Saudi Arabian pilots attacked the US, why
are we not at war with Saudi Arabia; and why are we at war with Iraq? 
This is wasted money, limbs and lives due to lies and damn lies.  That
is the reason our tax burden is so high. 

Beverly Boykin

 

Attached please find my comments on TAX REFORM.

Beverly Boykin

Sun 3/27/2005 7:02 AM