---
title: Tax complexity
date: "2002-11-15T12:00:00Z"
categories:
  - links
wp_id: 1043
description: I reflect on the Kelkar report's tax reform proposals and a Tom Clancy quote about the unnecessary industry created by complex tax codes, reconsidering my initial skepticism toward the idea that tax systems are unnecessarily convoluted.
keywords: [tax complexity, kelkar report, tax reform, tom clancy, executive orders, revenue policy]
---

Interesting article on the [Kelkar report on tax reforms](http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20021118&fname=Kelkar+Impact+%28F%29&sid=1). The point about simplifying tax and removing exemptions reminds me of a statement by George Winston in Tom Clancy's Executive Orders:

> The purpose of taxes is to provide revenue for the country's government so that the government can serve the people. But along the way we've created an entire industry that takes billions of dollars from the public. Why? To explain a tax code that gets more complex every year, a code that the enforcement people themselves do not understand with a sufficient degree of confidence to undertake responsibility for getting it right.

Well, frankly, I thought Clancy was being naive.