The current Internal Revenue Code can be analogized to a family home which has been much remodeled over the years. Moving about the house increased in difficulty. The current Internal Revenue Code needs new owners, statesmen who are prepared to withstand the lobbyists' incessant pressure, in order to return the tax code to a system which once again is sufficiently comprehensible as to inspire confidence and permit an economical system of self-assessment with a high degree of compliance. In order to compensate for the perceived inequity, voluntary compliance goes down. With few or no IRS field audits to worry about, fear is the less dominant concern.
Compliance goes down.
Increase the number of taxpayers qualifying for a simplified filing process . An additional goal should be to remove taxpayers from the complexities of the filing process, to the maximum extent possible. Perceived complexity unnecessarily scares millions of taxpayers into hiring others to prepare a tax return which should be easy to self-prepare. Many taxpayers have only Forms W-2 and a relatively small amount of interest or dividends to report. The inclusion of the interest or dividend statements frequently causes an outside preparer to be engaged.