The issue of tax reform is not a new one. It has been debated since the founding of the very first modern government. At the heart of the debate is what the role of government should be in its citizens lives. In the United States the controversy over taxes has been central since the nations founding in 1776. To analyze the issue of tax reform one must first look at taxes and what they represent to the United States. According to the encyclopedia Britannica almost all of the Untied States governments revenue comes from taxes. The most important of all the levied taxes is the personal income tax, which brings in by far the most revenue for the government. This tax was first developed during the civil war, with a rate of approximately 3%. As time progressed, the rate increased, and in 1913 the ratification of the 16th amendment established the basis for our current tax code. The rates became increasingly graduated until shortly after World War II, when the minimum rate was 23% and the maximum 94%. Graduated rates, meaning the rate increases as income increases, have become a world standard for tax policy. The progressive income tax has come to be viewed not only as a vital source of revenue for the government, but also as a vehicle of social reform, helping to redistribute wealth. The problem with the current tax system arises in the fact that income taxes are mandatory, and are not paid in exchange for some specific thing. And while they are supposed to be collected for the benefit of the taxpayers as a whole, the obligation of the individual citizen to pay the tax is independent of any benefit received. Even taxes on wages, called payroll taxes, commonly used for retirement funds and medical payments, have a very weak connection to the benefits received by the individual. Also, any taxpayer knows the time and effort required to file their taxes due to the complexity of the personal income tax is enormous. This is why there...
