No matter what our level of income, everybody would like to pay less taxes. Unfortunately, they are a necessary evil if we want to have things such as a national defense and sound infrastructure. At times there are those who talk about reforming our current tax system. Maybe this is something we need to do, but we must first consider if our tax system has failed us or if we have failed our tax system. Every year there are people who find ways to beat the system. The wealthy look for loopholes or move their money to offshore accounts. In an interview on NPR it was reported that the offshore accounts cost us over a trillion dollars in lost revenue. Even if tax reform was able to solve this problem, these people would find other ways to beat the system.

Even those who aren't wealthy find ways to avoid paying taxes. Some people just lie when filing taxes, while others deal in cash to avoid paying taxes. I don't know if the lost revenue from all this lying and cheating would equal a trillion dollars, but it most likely is a substantial amount. Again, even with tax reform people would still find ways to beat the system. Then there is the issue of how our tax dollars are spent. An irresponsible fiscal policy will not be solved by tax reform.

I don't think a new tax system is going to inspire people to pay their fair share or cause government to suddenly discover fiscal sanity. It is hard to condemn a tax system that is continually abused where people look for ways to beat it. It is highly unlikely that there is any tax system which wouldn't have loopholes or ways to avoid paying taxes. Before we even consider tax reform, we should first look at corruption reform and greed reform.