By now most Americans have filed tax returns and can put aside the spring's most arduous task for another year. There's little consolation in this knowledge. Next year's tax form will be just as complicated. President Bush's tax and budget plans compress a few tax brackets, but remain loaded with tax credits as did the plans of Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush and Ronald Reagan. Complexity knows no political ideology.
Tax credits are similar to wild cards in a board game.
Tax credits allow the bearer to avoid or pay lower taxes by virtue of a special designation. Students tap education credits. Working parents take child-care credits. When government wants to change behavior, the carrots of tax credits become politically more palatable than the sticks of higher taxes. The unfortunate result is that special interests from the entire political spectrum load up the tax code with credits that are complicated or inconsistent.