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Just repeal the 16th amendment - the income tax is too intrusive, and its too much of a temptation for politicians to use it for social engineering. There are

• uticus 4y ago
  > its too much of a temptation for politicians to use it for social engineering Bullseye on the problem. This is the number one reason for the complexity. And the complexity is the number one reason for the massive resources required just to make the system work. However, the solution... repeal the 16th amendment? If my memory of high school history class serves, didn't trying alternatives lead to the 16th amendment? [edit] To provide some more focus: I'm not saying the politicians are the problem, but the carrot-and-stick social engineering.
• jcranmer 4y ago
  > Just repeal the 16th amendment - the income tax is too intrusive Fun fact: the 16th Amendment does not give Congress the power to levy taxes on income. Congress already had that power. What the 16th Amendment does is directly overturn SCOTUS's Pollock decision, which ruled that a tax on income derived from rent was effectively a tax on property and therefore a direct tax, which the Constitution requires to be apportioned to the states based on population. Even if you repealed the 16th Amendment, it's doubtful that modern SCOTUS would uphold the precedent of Pollock anyways (already shortly after the passage of the 16th Amendment, SCOTUS effectively overruled Pollock on the grounds that income taxes were indirect taxes anyways). This makes the 16th Amendment arguably the single most useless amendment to the US constitution.