Local vs. Global

[fclbrokle]

It seems that the best local intentions often lead to poor global outcomes.

Consider, for example, US taxes. There are often tax breaks that seem like a good idea at the time, but which multiply to create large global expenses of time and money. The IRS' Taxpayer Advocate Service reports that individuals and businesses spend about 6.1 billion

Comments

[dzm]

There was a proposal a month or so back to throw out most of the Internal Revenue Code, reduce the marginal tax rates, but also eliminate basically all of the deductions, including the mortgage-interest and charitable-contribution deductions. This was supposed to increase overall tax revenue, make the filing process generally simpler, and still "cut taxes". Good idea, or do you think the government should be encouraging things like education and home ownership through tax policy?

(Very high on this specific rant is the Alternative Minimum Tax, of course.)

[mathmike]

The $163 billion figure includes an estimate of my hourly cost as an employee times the hours I put into my taxes. Still an interesting figure, but not money being directly spent by the IRS or even by me.

The annual IRS budget is approximately $12 billion.

[fabricant]

Also, 2008 total tax revenue was approximately $2.4 trillion, so $163 billion is actually closer to 7%.