John, you make good arguments that are practical. Take some time and read the tax code, regulations, commentaries, case law, etc., and you will find that practicality is not in there as the paramount rule.
Your comment is wrong from a legal standpoint. I'm not saying you are wrong. In fact, as I previously posted, IRS agents are as confused by their own code, regs and rules, as we taxpayers are. The result would be as you post unless you happened to find an agent who wished to make an example of you and that has happened. As an accountant, surely you know that every April, there are several prominent news features about tax cheats. This is an admitted resource for the IRS to scare all of us into attempted compliance.
This is why we all have to work together to get a new tax system, one that is simple and fair and doesn't require an industry that wastes time and billions of dollars figuring out how much you and I should spend to support our government. Our current system also encourages a cash and underground economy that loses billions of dollars in revenue, a shortfall that you and I have to make up.
That all means we have to scrap the entire system and come up with a simple alternative. |
