Chris Kemp

As the saying goes, there are only two guarantees in life: death and taxes, and the deadline for one is fast approaching. While both conjure feelings of anxiety, at least for now, my dad still does my taxes.

I’ve tried looking through my 1040EZ form, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out what numbers they want me to write in the boxes. Go ahead, ask me who the president of the Czech Republic, is and I’ll confidently answer Vaclav Havel, but ask me anything involving brackets and deductions, and a look of bewilderment is all I have to offer.

Turns out, I’m not alone here. A study released by The Associated Press and Ipsos-Public Affairs Tuesday found most Americans think federal income taxes are too complicated.

According to an Associated Press article, seven in 10 people interviewed said their taxes are too complicated. The survey also asked participants if they’d rather go to the dentist or file taxes. Not surprisingly to me, 49 percent preferred a trip to the dentist.

In addition, if you have yet to file your taxes, you’d better hurry. In case you’ve been living under a rock, tomorrow is April 15, otherwise known as tax day.

(Just ask Willie Nelson, who was charged $16 million in 1993 for delinquent taxes.)

However, if you still haven’t sent your form to the Internal Revenue Service, you’re in pretty sizable company. According to the article, nearly one-third of the 133 million income tax returns expected this year will have arrived at the IRS within the last two weeks, 9 million will file extensions and 2 to 3 million will miss the due date.

“If there’s a deadline, some people will do almost anything to avoid it,” IRS spokesman Eric Smith said in the article.

Well, if the process of filing taxes causes so many headaches, why wouldn’t people avoid them? My friend spent more than two weeks dealing with his taxes, only to realize he forgot to check the dependent box and had to file an amended form.

On the other hand, take my high school social studies teacher. He used to tell us how, in protest, he sent his taxes to the IRS in all pennies, postage-due.

While taxes in general give me (not to mention 70 percent of the total population) a headache, most people surveyed said they do not favor getting rid of some deductions and tax credits to make the process easier.

As my friend exclaimed in exasperation after filing his amended reform, “just take as much as you want, I don’t care.”

The AP-Ipsos poll, which surveyed 1,001 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent, found 45 percent of those questioned support eliminating some deductions, while 51 percent opposed.

President Bush also has created, out of the good of his heart of course, a federal council that will collect information over the next few months and recommend ways of simplifying the federal tax system.

According to the AP article, some of these proposals may include reducing income tax rates while imposing a national sales tax or instituting a flat tax that would have everyone pay the same rate regardless of what they earn.

Not coincidentally, people who make $75,000 or more a year were most likely to support a flat-tax plan, but they were still evenly split. Overall, only 40 percent of people surveyed said tax rates should be the same for everyone.

I really don’t see how either of these proposals would make the process of filing taxes easier for me (that is, once my dad no longer agrees to take care of them). But hey, I’m a woman and, according to Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, I’m physically less capable of doing math anyway.

On a side note, I, for one, appreciate Summer’s comments. At last, I now have an excuse for my unwillingness to do taxes myself, and it may even work when arguing why I don’t balance my checkbook.

Regardless, an increase in sales tax would have similar long-term effects of a flat tax. I, as a soon-to-be graduate and underpaid member of the workforce, will be spending relatively and conceptually more, while wealthy individuals’ contributions will mean less to their ability to sustain a livelihood.

Taxes, regardless of the confusion they cause the majority of us, are a necessity for maintaining the services our society is accustomed to. So, this is my new financial year’s resolution: I will learn to do my own taxes and, in the midst of pulling out my hair in frustration, I will remember that by participating in the system, I am doing my part as a U.S. and Wisconsin citizen.

Pelleymounter is a senior print journalism and political science major and editorial editor of The Spectator. Pelley’s Perspective is a weekly column that appears every Thursday.