As I have stressed, a fundamental problem for taxpayers and the IRS is the complexity of our tax law. As the Internal Revenue Code becomes increasingly incomprehensible, the intrusive measures allowed to IRS for enforcing it seem to become more draconian. Every detail of a taxpayer's private financial life is open for government inspection. IRS employees can make extraordinary demands on taxpayers, and can take extraordinary actions against them. Mixing such broad powers with a vague and complex law is a recipe for a civil liberty catastrophe.
Actual abuse is rare, but the threat of abuse is always present.
Until we change how we tax income, we will continue to have an intrusive agency with broad powers. It doesn't have to be that way. Our economy as well as our civil liberties would be better off with fundamental tax reform. A tax return could fit on a postcard if Rep. Dick Armey s flat tax was the law. Under Rep. Bill Archer's proposed spending tax, we wouldn't even need an income tax.