[Novalug] Tax Software Example

[Ellis Pierce]

On Tuesday 23 January 2007 15:29, Keith Casey wrote:
> On 1/23/07, Michael Stone <mstone at mathom.us> wrote:

>
> Imagine if we had a simple flat tax.  Greg's son could do the taxes
> for everyone in NoVaLUG... during the next meeting... on a post
> card.... and you could double check the calculation by the time you
> got to the car.
>

The problem isn't with the multiple rates/flat rate - probably a lot of 
closely spaced small brackets would work as well as a single rate by 
minimizing the effect of marginal changes in taxable income.  For most 
people, the tax due is simply taken from a printed (or computer) table, and 
for the others it is a t=a+ b(i-c) formula - and almost certainly those 
needing the formula can afford a CPA, and probably use one.

The complexity is in the definition of taxable income and offsets/deductions, 
whether business related (depreciation, wasting assets, reimbursable and 
non-reimbursable expenses, facility improvement vs maintenance, home office, 
special credits, etc) or personal (mortgage interest, medical and charitable, 
the cost of assets purchased at various times and sold at a profit, etc)