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With the annual April 15 tax deadline approaching, taxes are on the minds of most Americans.
Ours, too!
This year, especially, KSL is thinking about what might have been had federal and state lawmakers had the gumption to follow through with grandiose plans, promoted through glib rhetoric, to overhaul outdated, excessively complex and essentially unfair tax codes.
At the federal level, President Bush's celebrated Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform issued its final report in November. Lot's of good recommendations, but very little action since! In fact, Treasury Secretary John Snow's March 3 statement that the Bush Administration has no set timetable for reform only reinforces the unlikelihood of any substantial change occurring nationally.
Locally, there's still a glimmer of hope. Lawmakers recently reduced the sales tax on food and the Governor says he'll push his flatter income tax proposal at a special session of the legislature in May. But that, too, falls far short of the comprehensive reform envisioned and recommended by tax reform experts before their proposals landed in the hands of the politicians.
For now, and most likely the foreseeable future, American and Utah taxpayers will have to continue to live with antiquated and unfair systems of taxation, and that, frankly, is frustrating and disappointing.
