Do What I Say, Not What I Do

Out of four top Congressional tax writers, only William Thomas (R-CA) prepared his own return. Meanwhile, Charles Rangel (D-NY), Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Max Baucus (D-MT) had professional preparers complete returns for them. Alicia Korney of WebCPA points out that this is a slighter higher rate than the over 60% of taxpayers nationwide which use paid tax preparers.

While paid tax returns provide jobs for accountants and attorneys and increase the GNP, the fact that tax writers ask for help in preparing personal returns seems to indicate real value in working to simplify taxes. Not all is lost, however; Senator Grassley's acknowledgement of using a paid preparer should provide good fodder for a follow-up by Joe Kristan of his "Average Joe Strikes Back" post last week in Roth CPA Updates.