Am I the only one that sees that, even if we do avoid the total disaster of electing Harris and Tampon Tim, we are still likely to get a more complicated Internal Revenue Code under a Trump administration?

There are several ideas being tossed around that frankly seem like they would each serve to further complicate an internal revenue code that is pretty much an impenetrable morass to anyone other than attorneys and accountants.

As one quick example: Can you imagine what would happen if the IRS actually tried to administer a tax law change that tried to make tips free of all taxes?

Though perhaps well intended, this might well be a nightmare to administer.

Questions that immediately arise are:
“What is included in this tax free tip income?”
“Does this mean tip income would be free of the Social Security and Medicare tax? Or just no income tax?”
“And what about all the other possible taxes?”

The above are only the “tip of the iceberg” of the questions and concerns.

If we go on to consider the problems that were caused by the QBI (Qualified Business Income) deduction, currently a part of the Federal tax law, and then add to that mess with things like “No tax on Social Security” and “No tax on overtime pay” and apply a variation of the concerns raised above related to tip income, can anyone else start to imagine the layers of complexity that this will add?

I am all about lowering taxes on the working poor. But, aren’t there better ways? Maybe consider repealing the Social Security and Medicare tax for everyone on all income and increase the Individual Income Tax across to make up the difference. And if we really do want to reduce the tax burden on the lowest income earners, to try to give those trying to get started, maybe increase the Standard Deduction on all tax payers to maybe $25,000. What do you think?

After considering how the tax system seems to work, the problem I keep seeing is that it is really hard for those trying to get on their feet when the government wants to start taxing their first dollar of income before they have even put a roof over their head.

As for those that chirp and chirp about the Social Security Trust Fund and/or the Medicare Trust Fund running out of money – this really seems to be mostly just NOISE. This is an outdated myth that we are some how having the working poor pay into some account that ONLY belongs to them when the Federal government can raid it at will and a single act of Congress can wipe it out at any time.

With a national debt upwards of US$35 TRILLION, who is kidding who. This is ALL political smoke and mirrors on both sides of the isle.