Paying the tax man

MeTheSheeple wimped out and used Intuit's TurboTax Online this year to do the taxes. It was relatively painless and relatively cheap, at about $130 state and federal, with professional review. Still, I was stunned by this question:

Alternate 5.85% Tax Rate
The Massachusetts Department of Revenue offers a voluntary tax rate on 5.3% income. The voluntary tax rate is 5.85%.

Do you want to pay this higher rate of tax?
Note: This tax rate is strictly voluntary and will increase your tax. Most people answer No here.

Hey, you gotta give 'em credit for trying.

Last year, our 2004 income taxes counted income from three states. It seemed like a good idea to go to tax professionals. You know, those guys between the video store and the Chinese take-out place, in the stripmall, near the Wendy's and Brooks Pharmacy. Of course, those were the tax professionals now getting sued by New York for defrauding their clients. We decided against using those tax professionals after the tax professionals had to restate theirtax filings, and then, if I understand correctly, had to rerestate the filings.

Not much has changed since 2002, when the Washington Post (no link to article, sorry) wrote about tax preparers and a federal government initiative to make it easier for regular people to file on their own. An excerpt:

Two years ago, when the Clinton administration appeared to be moving toward building an electronic tax preparation system, Congress won commitments from IRS officials not to compete with private industry. Industry officials complained yesterday that the Bush administration is violating those pledges by proceeding with its initiative.

The move is "so unbelievable given the administration's attitude about the public sector and government interference," said Edward Black, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a trade group. "My members certainly did not believe that the United States had elected an administration that would increase the role of the government in competing with high-tech companies."

Black said it also raised "huge privacy issues to have the law enforcement entity involved in the use of raw data."

Now, what I can't find, but I swear I actually read, was a letter to the editor by an association of tax preparers, or some such. In there was a curious statement along the lines of "Tax collection has never been a function of government." God, MeTheSheeple wishes he could find that letter.

The only reason the tax preparation folks do so much business is: A) the federal tax code is unwieldy at best, nightmarish at worst; and B) people have complicated, busy lives that don't neatly fit into boxes. (A), at least, could be reduced.

Now, don't go running to your Congressman to demand a simplfication. Reporters Bartlett and Steele discovered years ago that every self-proclaimed tax simplication added hundreds of pages to the tax code.

Maybe there should be three things out there that are sure: Death, taxes and frustration.