New CF&P "Economics 101" Video Exposes Hidden Tax of IRS Compliance
(Washington, D.C., Monday, April 12, 2010) In the latest "Economics 101" video released today by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation (CF&P), Hiwa Alaghebandian of the College of William and Mary explains that the high cost of complying with the internal revenue code is a hidden tax that makes a bad system even more oppressive. Entitled The Onerous Compliance Cost of the Internal Revenue Code, the mini-documentary examines how corrupt loopholes and rising paperwork force taxpayers to
devote ever larger amounts of time, energy, resources, and money in hopes of figuring out the right number to put on their tax returns.
"The tax code is not only too complicated and arcane but also extremely ambiguous," said CF&P President Andrew Quinlan.
"The average taxpayer is saddled with the burden of trying to figure out complex questions and often has very little hope of figuring out the right answer."
"The current system is anti-growth because of punitive tax rates, but that's just the economic cost," added Dan Mitchell, Cato Institute
Senior Fellow and Chairman of CF&P. "Billions of hours and hundreds of billions of dollars are wasted each year on compliance."
Executive Summary:
The tax system is a complicated nightmare that forces taxpayers to devote ever-larger amounts of time, money, energy, and other resources in hopes of complying with the internal revenue code and
avoiding IRS persecution. This CF&P Foundation video shows that this corrupt mess is the result of 97 years of social engineering and industrial policy that began almost immediately after that dark day in
1913 that the income tax was created.
This new video is part of CF&P's Economics 101 video series, which is designed to explain free market concepts, with
particular emphasis on reaching students and young people. This is the fourth video in the Economics 101 series. See below for links to all videos .