Our tax code is ridiculously complicated. Not only is a basic tax filing complicated enough in itself to navigate through the instructions, but the government caters to multitudes of one-off taxpayer situations by offering specific and detailed credits, deductions and exemptions for a wide array of things including education, energy, health care, savings, working and other activities (life). The result is that tax time is a burden for the average working American, 100x more burdensome for those operating a business or corporation, and someone somehow still ends up getting screwed.

Even the instructions for one-off deductions are ridiculously complicated and open to error. Pulled from a 2016 article in TIME..."The IRS guide for the earned income tax credit is 37 pages long, and the rules are so complicated that the credit’s error rate is 27%, according to the IRS. That amounts to $18 billion of mistakes every year for just for this one credit."

Then you add to it the fact that this creates a situation perfect for fraudsters, and the IRS doesn't have the manpower or the resources to effectively control for such activity, which results in billions of dollars in refunds being handed out to people that don't deserve them and illegally obtained them.

Does this bill resolve those concerns? Not completely, no. But it is a step in the right direction. We need to simplify the tax code and significantly reduce the number of deductions and credits so that each of us can realize the tax benefits we deserve without having to rack our brains for weeks trying to figure out how to file a return (or paying someone to do it for us).