Speculations circled amid dealings that put Kevin McCarthy in the speaker of the House position. In order to seal the deal after several misses, McCarthy had to agree to allow a vote on a bill that included abolishing the IRS.
The likelihood of the bill going anywhere is not very good though, in spite of taxpayers prematurely rejoicing at the thought of the tax collection agency being dismantled.
We now are looking down the barrel of a couple years of bills being bounced back and forth without a lot of progress. Even though the Republican controlled House is in favor of stripping the IRS budget and back tracking on new funding that was added last year, the Democratic controlled Senate is highly unlikely to let it move on. Even if that unlikely event occurred, it is likely to then be vetoed on the President’s desk.
Tax preparers can rest assured that our demand for services is not going anywhere any time soon.
This isn’t the first time bills have included proposed legislation on things like “fair tax” or “flat tax” or just general overhaul of the tax code has been proposed.
The last time the tax code was majorly overhauled was 1986 and 1954 before that. History would suggest we are overdue for a big change, as would many taxpayers and practitioners who all agree that code has become increasingly convoluted and difficult to understand. But given the current political climate, it does not look like that day will be coming under this administration.
