David Kirkham Testify Before The Senate Finance Committee

[4pipes]

Originally Posted by David Kirkham

Guys,

I have been invited to testify before the Senate Finance Committee next Tuesday in Washington DC on “Complexity and the Tax Gap: Making Tax Compliance Easier and Collecting What’s Due.”

They asked me to testify from the point of view of a small business owner.

Any suggestion you all have would be greatly appreciated.

David

The tax calculation should be forced to fit on a single 8x11 page and can be completed without professional help in a couple of hours by anyone.

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by 4pipes

The tax calculation should be forced to fit on a single 8x11 page and can be completed without professional help in a couple of hours by anyone.

Thank you. I will certainly tell them the complexity is costing jobs.

Moderators,

I know this is a Cobra site but I truly want to hear what everyone has to say as many people on this site are small business owners or work for small businesses.

Guys,

Let's please keep the rhetoric to a minimum and come up with solutions--not flames.

David

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by David Kirkham

Thank you. I will certainly tell them the complexity is costing jobs.

The government will certainly disagree. The complexity is creating jobs. Look at all the tax preparers and the whole industries built around tax preparation firms like H&R Block and software like Turbotax, and then you have a whole government bureaucracy of the IRS. A friend and I were talking last night about a VAT. It won't happen. The IRS would no longer be needed. H&R Block would be non-existent and all those software guys in India doing Turbotax would no longer be needed.

I think we all agree that simplification would be good for us, but it's what keeps "them" employed. They have lots more lobbyists than we do.

Good luck but I would rather row a raft up the Colorado River.

P.S. I'm curious just how much of our tax base goes to the "overhead" of the IRS?

[Racer_X]

There's the best idea overall. As another small business owner, the current filing requirements are ridiculous! Just make it a flat tax and it would be a whole lot easier.

The problem comes in that it would put a lot of folks out of work (government and private sector) and they can't have that.

Originally Posted by 4pipes

The tax calculation should be forced to fit on a single 8x11 page and can be completed without professional help in a couple of hours by anyone.

So simple a caveman could do it?? (the tax form)

[eschaider]

David,

While I recognize this as an old saw I would really appreciate it if they;

1.) Kept their regulatory nose(s) out of our business
i.e. Health Insurance, EPA, OSHA, for starters
2.) Reduced the level of taxation. Less tax means more money to invest in expansion (= more jobs)
3.) Expand the section 179 and bonus depreciation to include more things we buy to grow our businesses
4.) Abandon/Revise their anti business mindset that produced ideas like the 1099's that would go to anyone/business we paid $600 to for goods or services.
5.) Go back to being a Federal Government and stop the micromanagement of things they should not be involved in like incandescent vs CFL lighting.
6.) Give us a modicum of visibility and certainty with respect to regulatory change and at the same time certainty with respect to how long it will be effective - at the very least what it is. It's tough to plan when you don't know what the rules will be next year.

Thanks for going to bat bat for us. Hope you get at least a single or double. I'm not kidding myself about home runs with the current crowd we have up there.

Ed

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Racer_X

There's the best idea overall. As another small business owner, the current filing requirements are ridiculous! Just make it a flat tax and it would be a whole lot easier.

The problem comes in that it would put a lot of folks out of work (government and private sector) and they can't have that.



So simple a caveman could do it?? (the tax form)

Originally Posted by eschaider

David,

While I recognize this as an old saw I would really appreciate it if they;

1.) Kept their regulatory nose(s) out of our business
i.e. Health Insurance, EPA, OSHA, for starters
2.) Reduced the level of taxation. Less tax means more money to invest in expansion (= more jobs)
3.) Expand the section 179 and bonus depreciation to include more things we buy to grow our businesses
4.) Abandon/Revise their anti business mindset that produced ideas like the 1099's that would go to anyone/business we paid $600 to for goods or services.
5.) Go back to being a Federal Government and stop the micromanagement of things they should not be involved in like incandescent vs CFL lighting.
6.) Give us a modicum of visibility and certainty with respect to regulatory change and at the same time certainty with respect to how long it will be effective - at the very least what it is. It's tough to plan when you don't know what the rules will be next year.

Thanks for going to bat bat for us. Hope you get at least a single or double. I'm not kidding myself about home runs with the current crowd we have up there.

Ed

Thank you for the suggestions. I sincerely appreciate you guys cheering from the bench. Thanks so much for trusting me to take a few swings.

David