Death and Taxes and the IRS

We know of no scientific way to measure these things, but our guess is that with April 15 at hand the level of national surliness inexorably has soared, especially among those taxpayers unfortunate enough to be in debt to their government rather than among its creditors. Grumbling over paying taxes of course predates the founding of our republic. Above the flood of nasty things said about taxation over the centuries have arisen a few sane and sage comments. The wisest words probably came from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. nearly a hundred years ago. Taxes, he wrote, are what we pay for civilized society.

Among the responsibilities of the govern- ment’s tax collection agency is trying to make sense of the fiendishly complex tax code that Congress in its wisdom has produced. That thankless task results in an error rate no private business could tolerate: About one time in five the Internal Revenue Service gets things wrong. This only invites further IRS-bashing, not least by public figures who should know better. There have been increasing calls, for example, to abolish the IRS or to punish it by cutting its staff.

But of course if the IRS were done away with, Congress would immediately have to create a successor agency to collect taxes. And if its agent roll were reduced--House Speaker Newt Gingrich proposes slashing it by 60%--then tax cheating would inevitably escalate, leaving collections smaller, all federally funded activities poorer, the deficit larger and honest taxpayers even more frustrated. Like the tax code, the IRS desperately needs overhauling. Like taxes, it or something very much like it will always be with us.