Thursday, February 18, 2010

Pilot slams Austin IRS building

So this guy goes off the deep end, burns his house down and crashes his Cessna into the Austin, TX IRS building.

Initially, they wondered what his motivation was for doing something like that.

Hell, I knew immediately what his motivation was. The IRS is a humorless bunch that generally treats people like garbage, won't listen to reason, and is not motivated by compassion or mercy.

Then, they find the guy's suicide note.
"Here we have a system thatis, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet it mercilessly holds accountable it's victims, claiming that they're responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand."
I understand his frustration. I've been there, done that.

The US Tax Code is so Byzantine that no one understands it. If you call the IRS, it's an even bet whether you'll get a correct answer or not, yet you're still held to comply with the law.

This guy is the best argument around for simplifying the tax code. If the Congress wants to change something they could begin by repealing the entire tax code and substituting something less than 10 pages, written in 10th grade English, entirely understandable and plainly written. That's change I could applaud.

7 comments:

J said...

>If you call the IRS, it's an even bet.....

Give their 1-800 number a try. Make sure your bladder is empty.

Anonymous said...

The only people exempt from the responsibility of following tax law are the slime in Congress who write the laws.

Hmm, Congressional Slime. I repeat myself.

Gerry N.

Rich Jordan said...

Never use or trust the phone when dealing with a government agency for anything of importance. Especially the IRS and ATF. Get _anything_ from them in writing, on their letterhead, and signed. And even that might not be enough but at least it will show an effort at due diligence on your part at your trial...

JimB said...

The difference between the iRS and a hooker is...
The hooker will stop screwing you after you die

Rivrdog said...

Simplify the tax code? PawPaw, an entire industry has been built on the very premise that the code can't be understood by laymen.

On the one hand, that industry has over a hundred thousand trained lawyers in it who only exist to get you out of the pitfalls built into the code. Lawyers don't like it when you take away "their" special court.

On the other hand, the IRS is the perfect "heavy hand of government" that adds the fear factor to keep us dweebs in line. Without the IRS, the government would have to find some other fear-inducing thing for us, or else we might feel so empowered as to make OTHER major changes.

Termite said...

I'm trying real hard not to laugh at the IRS getting a plane flown into their building.......and failing.

Flintlock Tom said...

I understand that the IRS building in Austin has been the target of bomb attacks in the past. Unless they're subject to the tax code, I doubt very much if it was Islamic terrorists.
I finally gave up trying to understand it. I just buy the software, fill in the blanks and take their word for whatever comes out the other end.