Goal of Tax Reform

In my opinion, The United States does not have a tax problem. We have a problem with unprincipled government spending.

This main problem cannot be addressed with tax reform.

The tax reform effort should concentrate on mundane matters like finding the best way to collect taxes and reducing compliance costs for American businesses, while minimizing the disruption caused by the reform.

The American System of governance holds citizens in high esteem. I would add one additional qualification for a tax reform plan. The tax reform should be designed to empower and educate taxpayers.

Because we have an elected form of government, the tax collection system should provide clear and concise information on how much the government costs and how much taxpayers pay for the government.

The United States currently has an inefficient tax system designed to obfuscate the tax collection process.

Tax money is collected from employers. Employees must file an annual tax return to complete the tax payment.

The goal of the Object Tax is to introduce Tax Aware Accounts as an alternative to the current withholding system.

The program creates an alternative to the withholding system. People would switch only if they found the new system easier to use. Unlike the Fair Tax, the Object Tax has minimal disruption.

Tax Aware Accounts give taxpayers a full accounting of when they paid their taxes. The accounts will include a running tally of the total amount of taxes they pay. The account structure improves the taxpayers' understanding of taxes with no costs to the government.

Freedom Works Group #386248

I created a group on Freedom Works to help define the Object Tax. The group is node 386248.

The Object Tax Blog

Tax Reform is in the air.

It is likely that tax reform will be the diving issue for the 2014 and possibly 2016 elections.

As I looked at the political landscape, I realized that there is not a good tax reform proposal on the table. With no good tax reform proposals on the table, the tax reform debate is likely to devolve into culture war nonsense and greater division.

Now, it just so happens that a few decades ago while I was transitioning from C to C++, I asked myself an intriguing question: "Would it be possible to use advanced system design techniques to streamline tax collection?"

The answer, of course, is "Yes, If we applied advanced system design techniques from the computer industry we could streamline the tax collection process."

So, I was studying Object Oriented Programming. I created a simple "Object Based Design" to improve the tax collection process. I then gave the reform a named called "The Object Tax."

Every year, round about April 15th, I harken back to the Object Tax and think about how much better life would be if someone applied quality system design to the issue of tax collection.

Since tax reform is shaping up as the primary issue for the 2014, I decided to start this blog to talk about my observations with the hopes that my observations can make a positive change in the state of the political debate.