If no one were willing to be a tax lawyer or CPA wouldn't government be forced to simplify taxes?
Friday, April 16th, 2010 at
5:50 pm
I don’t have trouble with mine either Steve, but corporate tax returns can be thousand of pages long and I have heard small business people complain purchase prescription drugs about how complex their taxes are.
No, not at all. And given that part of the reason that those fields pay so well is the complexity of the Tax Code, people will ALWAYS be willing to tackle that career field unless it is massively simplified.
Even a "simplified" Tax Code will be complex enough to keep most CPAs, EAs, tax attorneys, etc. gainfully employed. A flat tax withheld at the source would be the ultimate in simplicity but would drive the tax burden so far down the wage scale that the minimum wage would have to be tripled just to keep people off of the streets.
Even if Congress got bold and massively simplified the Tax Code, the next Congressional session would start tinkering with it again especially given the hue and cry over the inequity of it on the poor and middle class. It wouldn’t be long before we’d be right back to where we are right now.
Of course, such theoretical discussion is pointless since it’s based upon an assumption that can’t come to pass. There will always be a need for auditors and that drives the need for CPAs. While some CPAs do specialize in taxation, taxation only represents a small fraction of the total work done by CPAs taken as a whole. I know plenty of CPAs who I’d never let NEAR a tax return, though I’d be comfortable with allowing them to manage my finances for me.
There will always be tax cheats who need representation in court and that’s what tax attorneys do. Few of them prepare many tax returns so a simplification of the Tax Code won’t affect their workload much at all. In fact when you simplify tax laws it forces the cheats be become ever more creative in their efforts to skirt the laws and that would probably result in MORE work for tax attorneys, not less.
I’m not a tax lawyer or a CPA and I don’t have any problem doing my own taxes.
Where there is a demand there will always be a supply. Now if you ask would there there be fewer Tax Lawyers and CPAs if the tax code was simplified the answer is yes.
haven’t you heard? they have spent years making the tax codes simpler?
In theory yes, but as long as the tax code is complicated…the demand for those professions will be there and people will take on those jobs due to the high pay.