Don't push for a tougher IRS

Issues tend to come and go in cycles. Barely a decade ago, Congress was fuming over the need to reform the IRS. A lengthy parade of witnesses testified in committee hearings about IRS abuses reminiscent of strong-arm tactics in some banana republic. A contrite IRS Director Charles Rossotti could do little but admit the abuses and promise to do better.

Today, the new Democratic leadership in Congress is less concerned about the collectors than the taxpayers. About $300 billion goes unpaid each year because taxpayers either willfully under-report their income, or because the tax code is too complicated for even educated people to understand. If the government had that money in hand, the nation's bottom line would look a lot better, and Congress seems to be itching to get the IRS to crack down.

Which means you can set your clock for about 10 years from now, when the tough tactics of the IRS again lead to congressional hearings and public hand-wringing over an agency that uses police tactics without any oversight.

Americans can stay on this roller coaster forever. Congress seems happy to keep it going, counting on a short public memory. It sure beats the pain of having to enact real reforms.

But enough of the foolishness. Yes, some taxpayers are cheaters, but the problems go much deeper than that.

The first thing the nation needs is a sense of perspective. As an official with the libertarian CATO Institute recently told the Associated Press, the nation's roughly 86 percent income-tax compliance rate is enviably high. A lot of industrialized nations have strong black-market economies evasive to tax collectors. The United States does not.

The second thing the nation needs is a strong memory. Congress nearly unanimously passed some IRS reforms in 1998, but those reforms did not change the basic structure of the agency nor the fact that it operates without much government oversight.

The third, and most important, thing the nation needs is a simpler tax code. Every time a new deduction or rule is passed, a loophole is born. And every new twist in tax law adds to a system so complicated many Americans find it necessary to hire someone to prepare their returns.

By all means, Americans have a civic duty to pay taxes, regardless of how they may personally oppose them. But the government ought to feel a duty to enact meaningful tax reform, rather than simply encouraging an agency with a history of abuses to get tougher.