Does the MaxTax Form 2000 seem too simplistic to ever be implemented?  Think again.  An operational version of the MaxTax is found in Washington State's Business and Occupation Tax (B&O tax).  While the B&O tax is as disliked as any tax, it does work, it isn't a complicated income tax on businesses and business owners, it is simple to figure out, and doesn't get in the way of productive people being productive. The MaxTax is merely an individualized variation of the tax system used for businesses in Washington State. In many respects, the MaxTax is a simpler and fairer tax system.

One advantage of an MaxTax is that those few individuals who do need to use the long forms because of unusual deductions could still use the numerous deductions and provisions in the long forms. However, most people don't need to worry about the complexity of the long forms. For most, the MaxTax would end up as a 10% tax on income plus the 15% social security and medicare taxes that are already paid by individuals.

    Another advantage of the MaxTax is that an IRS audit wouldn't be some complex accounting procedure that individuals to bring in box loads of every expense and deduction they had. All that mattered would be an accurate accounting of your income, which is generally a simple bookkeeping exercise.  If you did file the long form, provisions could be made so that your maximum tax would be the MaxTax, plus a modest penalty if you were found to be intentionally negligent in filing a long 1040 form.

    Of course, if ever implemented, we run the risk of freeing up politician's time now spent micromanaging every other aspect of our personal lives to focus on converting some other non-problem in to a problem. Oh well, perhaps that can be dealt with too.  

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