12/11/06 Change the tax code

What are those two certainties in life? Death and Taxes. Can't do much about the first but two Northwest senators want to do something about the second, the taxes. Idaho's Larry Craig and Oregon's Ron Wyden are often at different ends of the political spectrum but they're joining forces in an attempt to simplify the federal tax code. Craig says it's the one complaint he hears year in and year out. CRAIG "This code has become so complicated, the 6.4 billion hours preparing tax returns, some nearly 270 billion dollars spent in related compliance costs and on and on. The 60 plus thousands of pages of tax code." Taxpayers often go to the IRS with questions or seek opinions only to come away with no real answer. He feels that the US should look at some of the new democracies that emerged from the old Soviet system because they're going to a flat tax. CRAIG "A simple tax that is easy to apply that everybody understands and that isn't used as a manipulative tool for economies and investment." Craig and Wyden joined 14 different groups, some conservative, some liberal, in calling for tax reform, something they say should be complete and not done piecemeal. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott