In a nod to the ongoing economic turmoil wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service delayed the income tax filing deadline from April 15 to May 17.  In his statement, IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said the IRS “wants to do everything it can to help people in these tough times.” If the IRS were serious about helping people, it could, as most other countries do, simply eliminate the need to file taxes at all.  This doesn’t mean eliminating the income tax. Instead, the government could simply send individuals a bill  — or a check.   Beverly Moran is a Professor Emeritus of Law at Vanderbilt University and an expert on the U.S. taxation system.

 

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stevepb, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons