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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (36410)	5/3/2014 2:26:14 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 42652

>> Are you for even one second that tax laws are logical???????? Those thousands of pages and volumes of tax code are not written for the poor.......and there is little logic involved. When some pig farmer in Arkansas gets a special tax break, that's logical???? Tobacco price supports are logical...? There are certainly plenty of illogical provisions in the tax code. But the vast, overwhelming majority of it totally makes sense. If you read the regulations under the aforementioned section 704(b), I guarantee you will come away thinking they are illogical. But if you study those ten or so pages intensively you will find they make a hell of a lot of sense. That goes for almost every provision of the tax code. In fact, some of the most illogical provisions were put there by the courts. Take the landmark case of Gregory v. Helvering, 293 U.S. 465 (1935) in which Ms. Gregory said in effect, "I did it that way because the tax law said, 'If you do it like this, you won't be taxed on it.'" -- and the Court decided if you did it that way for tax reasons, then you have to pay taxes on it. That's freaking ignorant, but it has been the law for 75+ years. But you have to comprehend that tax law isn't just about raising revenue. It is about encouraging behavior that Congress deems appropriate. That's why married couples can elect to file joint returns; Congress believes it is good public policy to encourage marriage. Businesses are allowed to deduct certain capital expenditures because Congress generally is aware that it causes business to invest in capital assets which creates economic growth. Microsoft (and my little company) are allowed to deduct software development costs as R&D, not because R&D benefits only the current year, but because they want to encourage software development for whatever reason. It is all about providing incentives to accomplish what Congress deems desirable. Or, in the case of gambling they provide for extremely unfavorable treatment because they want to discourage gambling.