Is the U.S. tax system too complex?
Yes, the tax system is too complex. It will never be simple. It touches almost every aspect of human activity, and we live in a complex economy. For example, married couples gain a variety of advantages by filing a joint income tax return. An issue currently pending in the courts is whether same-sex couples legally married under Massachusetts law can file a joint return, even though the federal Defense of Marriage Act provides that the federal government will recognize only those marriages that are between one man and one woman. The so-called tax gap — the difference between what taxpayers should pay under current law, and what they actually pay — is huge, estimated at around $300 billion. It was even higher prior to recent efforts by the government to close it, especially by cracking down on offshore accounts and corporate tax shelters. Nonetheless, the United States enjoys about an 85 percent compliance rate, higher than that of many industrialized nations. Is part of the reason the
