https://www.wsj.com/articles/complexity-...1492469801
"...But I urge policy makers to remember that, as compared with about two million taxable corporations, there are 151 million individual taxpayers, including 27 million who report sole-proprietor or farm business income with their individual returns. There are also nearly nine million pass-through entities (S corporations and partnerships), the income from which is reported on individual income-tax returns. These taxpayers desperately need relief from the extraordinary compliance burdens the tax code imposes. ...
...Consolidate and simplify the six “family status” provisions in tax code. These include filing status, personal and dependency exemptions, the child tax credit, the earned-income tax credit, the child- and dependent-care credit, and the separated spouse rule. Every individual taxpayer is affected by at least two of these provisions, and many taxpayers are affected by five. I have proposed a family credit and a worker credit to replace them, which would have the added benefit of reducing improper EITC payments.
Simplify other provisions that govern taxation of the family unit, including “joint and several liability” and the “kiddie tax.”
Consolidate the incentives that encourage savings for education. There are now at least 12—far too many for most parents and students to make an informed choice.
Consolidate the incentives that encourage savings for retirement. There are now at least 15—again, far too many.
Reduce procedural incentives for Congress to use tax “sunsets.” More than 70 provisions currently in the tax code are temporary and require periodic renewal.
Minimize income phase-outs, which affect roughly half of all returns each year. They introduce inflated marginal “rate bubbles” and add considerable complexity to tax computations.
Streamline the penalty regime. In 1955, there were 14 civil penalties in the tax code. Today, there are more than 170, many of which are rarely assessed.
U.S. taxpayers have been struggling under the weight of the current tax code for far too long. The Bush and Obama administrations both produced reports with many good simplification proposals, as have the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees and others. There is no shortage of good ideas. Now is the time for the administration and Congress to seize the moment and finally, this year, carry tax reform across the goal line."