(The opinions expressed in guest op-eds are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.)
The U.S. Tax code should be scrapped, and the IRS abolished, and in its place, a flatter, simpler and fairer single tax rate system should be created. We can call it the Tax Code Complication Act to gain approval from the Democrats. Meanwhile, if you need me, I’ll be over here holding my breath.
You’ll hear much today about the Trump employee, Allen Weisselberg, who has pled guilty to tax violations. This case concerns whether he and other Trump employees evaded paying income taxes on nonwage compensation received from the Trump Organization.
In the case of Weisselberg, the nonwage compensation included: leased Mercedes-Benzes, an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, as well as tuition for private schools for his grandchildren. That no good rotten…
Weisselberg worked for the Trump Organization for over 50 years, having begun his career working for Trump’s father. Weisselberg, as the saying goes, is like a family member. So you can appreciate how it might seem like a shady area of existing and current tax law regarding whether these nonwage benefits are taxable as ordinary income under the current Tax Code.
And keep in mind, of the Tax Code, even for accountants and tax lawyers, is so ridiculously complex and contradictory that it has been shown time and time again that if you were to line up five experienced CPAs and five expert tax attorneys and asked them each to calculate the taxes owed on a moderately complex income tax return, you’d get ten different answers.
Something else to consider is this. According to the Tax Foundation, Commerce Clearing House is the publisher that puts out the Standard Federal Tax Reporter, which is 70,000 pages inclusive of each relevant statute, court case, and other vital information. Thus, American taxpayers must toil in our constantly growing tax police state while at the same time figuring out how much the tax and spenders in Congress get to squander based on the rest of us personally complying with a 70,000-page Federal Tax Report aka the U.S. Tax Code.
The Tax Code by itself is a paltry 2,652 pages clocking in at well over one million words without the relevant statutes, regs, and case law. But as has been pointed out in other articles on this subject, try being a CPA or Tax Attorney without understanding the relevant statutes, regulations, and case law.
So how many words is one million? Answer: a ton! To put this in some perspective, borrowing from the Tax Foundation, the King James Bible has 788,280 words, the book War and Peace is 560,000 words long, and the Harry Potter series is just over one million words.
So this guy, Weisselberg, who worked for the Trump family for over 50 years, was their CFO, so yes, his understanding of these issues is better than most, but still, he will go to jail for 100 days as part of his plea deal. But before you assume anything, Weisselberg hasn’t implicated Donald Trump as part of these questionable tax code violations. Indeed, according to an article in the New York Times this morning, Cyrus Vance, the partisan hack who masqueraded as the Manhattan District Attorney, tried to bring charges against Donald Trump; what else is new? But he was unsuccessful. After Weisselberg was indicted, the broader investigation against the Trump Organization continued until Vance left the District Attorney’s office.
After reviewing the evidence and facts in the case, Vance’s successor, Alvin L. Bragg, sworn in on Jan. 1, grew concerned about his prosecutors’ ability to show Trump intended to commit a crime. Being unable to, the witchhunt was halted. So this guy, whose only crime is not fully capitulating to a tax regime that demands compliance with a byzantine confiscatory tax collection scheme powered by 70,000 pages, and 28 million words (assuming each page has 400 words), will go to jail as part of the Establishment’s never-ending witchhunt of the former President and his family, friends, associates, colleagues, acquaintances and his supporters.
And now, with the “Inflation Reduction Act,” a total farce that while not doing a damn thing about inflation funds 87,000 new IRS agents, get ready, find that receipt you got for that lunch seven years ago because they’re coming after you next. Especially if you’re a Republican. So did I mention I’m a Libertarian? I probably shouldn’t have because the confiscatory taxers hate us even more.
Joe Armendariz is the Director of Government Relations & Public Affairs for Armendariz Partners, LLC. He is the former Executive Director of the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association, Santa Barbara Technology and Industry Association and the Chairman of the California Center for Public Policy. His views are his own and do not necessarily represent the views of his former or current group affiliations. He can be reached at: 805.990-2494