U.S. Tax Code / A Criminal Conspiracy?

The U.S. Tax Code:  a criminal conspiracy.  It is not as far-fetched as you might first think.  Sure, it is lawful in the sense that it was enacted, in innumerable ways and on countless occasions, by our duly elected government officials.  But…

The Tax Code was designed to fund the U.S. Government, provide for the National defense, and to provide various, defined requirements of the citizenry, not as a personal resource for political reward.  That said, where is the conspiracy?

I just finished doing my taxes for 2013.  Every time I go through this process it makes me angry.  No, I am not a tax expert.  But, I am somewhat expert in recognizing the prima facie elements of a crime.

Are you aware that our Tax Code is currently 72,000 pages long; and that in 2006 it was about 10,000 pages?  Furthermore, no one person, even very highly paid tax attorneys, understand all aspects of the code, the exemptions, tax advantaged entities, the often undefinable initial reasons for the law, as well as any probable unintended consequences for each aspect.  So, why is it so long and complex, and why don’t politicians change it?  That’s simple.

Politicians have used the Code for personal gain.  How so?  Politicians have two major, self-serving goals and those goals are to stay in office and not be required to relinquish the power that they so love and have become accustomed to.  For decades, they have used the Code’s unfathomable complexity to reward principal donors and prominent constituents; as well as to blatantly use their resultant power to buy votes with the taxpayers’ money.  Look around, the elements of criminal conspiracy for personal gain are readily apparent in the actions of many politicians.  It’s not the Democrats or the Republicans.  It is most politicians with a very few exceptions.  And, if you look at any politician who has been able to maintain their position for more than about ten years (Presidents require less time), you are looking at the perpetrator of conspiracies that would under common law, applicable to the common citizen, be prosecutable.  You might even say that you are looking at a criminal.

If this was not true, honest politicians would simplify the tax code so that everyone could understand it.

That is, of course, never going to happen.

True Nelson

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

         

            Quote attributable to:  John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, aka Lord Acton        (1834-1912)