File their own taxes?
Now that tax season is upon us, millions of Americans will begin to pay tax preparers or software companies billions of dollars to assist them in filing their income tax returns. No one in their right mind would disagree that the current tax code is absurdly complex. It is difficult, if not impossible, for the average American to be knowledgeable enough about the law to accurately file other than the simplest returns without assistance. Even professional tax preparers still make mistakes due to the complexity of the system.
However, if anyone should be well versed in tax law, it should be those responsible for writing it, namely, Congress. Without knowing the exact statistics, it is still a safe bet to assume that a vast majority of congressmen and senators do not file their taxes on their own. (Though many are still involved in the process enough to make sure that they don't pay everything that they are supposed to.)
It would be interesting to see a law enacted that requires members of Congress to file their own taxes without assistance from tax preparation professionals or software. Perhaps after they had spent some time floundering in the mess that they created, they might think twice about real tax reform.
