Woodall Calls for Elimination of IRS

Written by Rep. Rob Woodall (R-7th)

With tax season just around the corner, I want to call your attention to a Taxpayer Advocate report that was recently delivered to Congress discussing the abject failure of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to adequately serve America's taxpayers.

Take a look at some of their outrageous (though not altogether surprising) findings: 

• By the end of last year, it took the IRS more than six weeks to answer nearly half of taxpayers' letters and faxes dealing with adjustments to their returns.
• Between 2004 and last year, the agency did not even bother to answer 30% of taxpayer phone calls.
• Over the previous decade, 4,428 changes have been made to our 3.8 million-word tax code.

Americans already waste $431 billion per year complying with our tax code[1], yet the IRS is clearly incapable of doing its part by providing basic services to those taxpayers – such as picking up the phone. What does the IRS demand as a solution to its failures? More of your money. That's right – the IRS wants an increase to the $11.8 billion they have already been given.

We don't need to reform the IRS; we need to eliminate it.

That is why I am championing H.R. 25, the FairTax, which would dismantle the IRS and replace our current tax code with a 23% consumption tax at the final point of purchase for new goods and services. Not only would the FairTax do away with the headache of income tax compliance, it would also replace all other federal taxes. Congress wouldn't need to continue debating whether or not Americans should get another two-month "holiday" from the payroll tax – the FairTax would permanently eliminate it. We wouldn't have to keep fighting over which industries should continue to be subsidized with federal dollars in this budget-slashing era; the FairTax would eliminate them all and level the playing field for everyone.

Our current tax code is not doing America any favors. In fact, it is literally destroying economic growth and productivity. The sheer complexity of the law – taxpayers had to deal with 579 changes in 2010 alone – forces businesses to redirect precious resources from investment in new capital to tax code compliance. Instead of spending the $431 billion each year hiring new employees or investing in innovation, businesses are forced to spend the money complying with our punitive tax laws. Couple that with the fact that we have the highest book effective tax rate in the world, and it becomes clear that we need to scrap our tax code and start over.

It is also clear that more freedom – not more bureaucracy and more government spending – is the answer. At its core, the FairTax is not a tax bill at all; it's a freedom bill. We need to free ourselves from the $11.8 billion annual price tag on the IRS; we need to free the most productive workforce in the world from the suffocating red tape of our tax code; and we must free our businesses from the barrier that is preventing America from being the best place in the world to invest. America needs to pass the FairTax and free ourselves from our destructive tax code – and the IRS – once and for all.

[1] Laffer, Winegarden and & Childs; The Economic Burden Caused by Tax Code Complexity; April 2011; 3.

• National Taxpayer Advocate Fiscal Year 2012 Objectives
• The FairTax