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Each and every election cycle, politicians resort to the same arguments about taxation. Predictably, conservatives support broad tax rate cuts, while progressives support tax rate increases on the monolithic “wealthy.” This debate so often ignores the intricacies of our tax code, while instead focusing on marginal increases or decreases to the income tax rate.

Many times, “generous” billionaires write op-eds asking for their taxes to go up. Their proposal? Increase the top taxes for the highest earners or introduce a wealth tax. This may appear beneficial on its face, but 1) a wealth tax is likely unconstitutional and 2) the overly complicated tax code contributes to tax inequalities.

The Tax Code is Too Long

The United States tax code currently sits at “several thousand” pages. The tax code includes many tax deductions and policies that are requested by various special interest groups, and there may be generally positive reasons for these deductions. The billion-dollar tax accounting industry exists, in large part, to assist middle- and high-income earners navigate the tax code.

Elected officials and politicians often tend to boil down our discussion of taxation into a simplistic binary; one can either be in favor of tax rate cuts or against them. The reality is much more complicated. Politicians mostly simplify this debate so as to “rally their troops.” They may be unaware of the system’s complications, but it is likely that complex policy prescriptions are often not exciting, winning messages. For example, the progressive moniker “tax cuts for the rich” is short and sweet but it gets to the point. It takes a complicated issue and boils it down to the simplest terms. A politician, who explains the various tax deductions, is unlikely to gin up the same excitement that class-warrior or trickle-down politicians can.

For many voters, these complicated issues must be simplified because most voters don’t have sufficient time to explore them in detail. This is precisely why in our constitutional republic we rely on elected officials to legislate on complicated issues on our behalf. Issues such as tax reform are highly complicated; however, it is not difficult to understand how insufficient our discussion surrounding tax reform is.

Many voters generally think of the income tax as a key component of our federal tax policy. While this tax is the clearest, there are a bevy of other taxes. The most notable being the capital gains tax. In fact, 36 percent of the wealth of the “top 1%” is derived from investments, which are taxed at the capital gains rates. Slight increases or decreases to the listed income tax rate or capital gains tax rate may alter federal revenues. It is likely, though, that the elimination of various tax deductions or tax credits would not only simplify the tax code but also dramatically affect federal revenues. Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted, “The system is rigged and we need to drastically change it to protect the public.” Senator Sanders is spot on.

The Tax Code is Full of Special Interest Loopholes

At The Hill, Adam Kazda writes, “Corporations, like high-earners, can afford to pay the best accountants and lawyers, so they can navigate the complicated tax code and find the biggest tax breaks. According to one study, in 2014, 111 of 288 Fortune 500 companies surveyed either paid zero taxes or received a refund in at least one year from 2008 to 2012.” As Kazda notes, the act of seeking a tax deduction is entirely lawful, but the system may be taken advantage of. Congress is tasked with writing the federal tax code, so the problem clearly lies within their purview. Kazda writes that the top 1 percent of earners pay 24 percent of all U.S. taxes; however, a Tax Policy Center analysis found that in 2011, 4,000 millionaires paid no federal income tax. As billionaire investor Warren Buffett said, he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.

Federal tax reform is, indeed, necessary. Despite the Congressional Republicans’ best efforts in 2017, the federal tax system is still far too complicated. The elimination of federal tax deductions requires political will, something which so often seems lacking in Washington. For example, there was an incredible outrage over the Republicans’ alteration of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. Previously, individual taxpayers could deduct their state and local real estate and personal property taxes, as well as income taxes from their federal income tax returns. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), Republicans limited this deduction to $10,000. Outrage ensued in Washington and in largely progressive states with higher taxes.

In reality, less than one-third of tax filers “opted to itemize deductions on their federal income tax returns in 2016, but virtually all who itemized claimed a deduction for state and local taxes paid. High-income households are more likely than low- or moderate-income households to benefit from the SALT deduction.”

Consequently, the SALT deduction allowed taxpayers in, mostly, progressive states to write off their taxes, which as a consequence forced others to subsidize the tax burden. In reality, less than one-third of tax filers “opted to itemize deductions on their federal income tax returns in 2016, but virtually all who itemized claimed a deduction for state and local taxes paid. High-income households are more likely than low- or moderate-income households to benefit from the SALT deduction.” As a consequence of TCJA’s changes to the SALT deduction, “for taxpayers in the top 1 percent of the income distribution, the tax saving in 2018 will be about one-tenth of the tax saving in 2017.”

While there may be other taxes such as the alternative minimum tax which limits these benefits, the reality is that the tax code is unbelievably complicated. Many, if not most, Americans will opt for the standard deduction, which was “nearly doubled” under TCJA. For high-income earners, the complexity of the tax code provides an opportunity to decrease federal income taxes further. By no means do I hope to advocate in favor of higher tax rates. Instead, I believe we ought to reform the tax code so as to eliminate cronyism and special interest protections.

The federal tax code has understandably grown as the size and complexity of our economy has grown. We must not allow the tax code to be warped to fit the needs of special interests. It is past time for our elected officials to seriously confront the issue of special interest politics and address tax reform. While the Republicans attempted to simplify the tax code under TCJA, they did so without input from progressive lawmakers. If we are to truly “drain the swamp,” we must dramatically reduce the loopholes in our tax system. We can start by demanding that our politicians speak truthfully about the nature of our tax code.