As a tax attorney and CPA, I have studied the federal Internal Revenue Code extensively over the course of the last 20 years. Some people may tell me to get a life and that I could not have possibly chosen a more boring or inane field of study. 
For my entire life, I have always loved puzzles. My mom tells my two young sons how good I was at solving puzzles as a kid. I think of the Internal Revenue Code as a puzzle, a big complex and multi-faceted puzzle. My understanding of this puzzle started to develop in great detail during my studies at New York University while obtaining my Masters of Law in Taxation. In particular, famed tax expert Prof. Martin Ginsberg taught my class on tax policy. For the first time, I started to see how the Internal Revenue Code is used not merely for the purpose of raising revenue for the federal government, but for social engineering.
If the sole purpose of the Internal Revenue Code was to raise money for the government to spend, then a flat tax, with no or few deductions, would seem to be appropriate. Perhaps that was the idea when the U.S. constitution was amended to allow the income tax. Now, however, things have changed. And, I don’t see them going back.
Here are some examples of social engineering through the tax laws. Some lawmaker determined that Americans should own their own homes and that the tax law should punish those that don’t. To impose this idea, homeowners can take tax deductions for interest and real estate taxes on their homes while renters, who pay these same costs indirectly, cannot. Another example is the credit for day care expenses for children. Where is the credit for stay-at-home moms? There are only about a million more examples.
These days the tax laws are so complicated that even the Treasury Secretary and other high-level administration officials cannot even understand and comply with the rules. How can the average person or business owner be expected to? Removing the social engineering provisions and other Congress-blessed goodies would be a good first step in the right direction.
Tags: 1031 exchange real estate investment, asset protection, internal revenue code, IRS, IRS and state tax collections, Massachusetts, mclaughlin & quinn, Moore McLaughlin, Providence, Rhode Island, state taxes, tax, Tax planning, Thomas P. Quinn