Tax System

Money for waterfront could bring the city many happy returns The reluctance to provide public funding for completion of the waterfront promenade ("Battle over paying for promenade heats up," Sept. 3) is an example of penny-wise, pound-foolish public policy that will keep Baltimore from achieving its full potential as a first-rate, livable city. It's a well-documented fact that private investment follows public investment in infrastructure and amenities. Our suburban competitors know this and businesses and residents flock to jurisdictions where basic investments in roads, streetscape, open space and bike and walking trails are actively used public goods, not incomplete projects subject to endless debate.

Maryland sales tax due on in-state sales, not on out-of-state I am pleased with the public discussion that has followed my article on untaxed Internet sales published in The Sun June 30. People should be talking about this issue, whether they agree with me or not, because it affects all of us. People understand the basic issue of creating a level playing field for both local merchants and Internet sellers. Some of them just don't agree with it, and I don't understand that. Should the mom-and-pop bookstore have to charge 5 percent sales tax when the Internet giants halfway across the country who sell to Marylanders don't?

Warning that continuing cuts at the Internal Revenue Service threaten the nation's tax system, the Clinton administration is proposing more money to find cheaters and make them pay up. And the agency's top official has begun emphasizing that catching cheaters is as important as helping honest taxpayers. The administration is seeking a 9 percent increase in the agency's budget, the largest increase, adjusted for inflation, in 13 years. That would allow the IRS, whose auditing staff is down one-fourth since 1995, to raise the number of auditors for the first time in six years.

WITH new tax breaks for children, college tuition and retirement accounts, taxpayers face more figuring than ever when it comes to filing taxes. How have the new breaks affected the annual tax season? How are these so-called targeted breaks likely to affect the economy? What are the consequences for tax reform?Stephen MooreDirector, fiscal policy studies, Cato Institute, WashingtonTaxpayers keep telling Congress they want a simpler tax system, but Congress has continued to add new deductions.

A bill that supporters say would put "truth" in Maryland's property tax system without changing the amount people pay passed the House of Delegates yesterday.Critics suggest the legislation will lead to higher taxes, and the bill's fate in the Senate is uncertain.Under the bill, which passed 100-38, local governments would no longer tax residential and business properties on 40 percent of their assessed value. Property would instead be taxed at 100 percent of its value, and local tax rates would be cut to 40 percent of what they are now.The result would be that people would pay the same amount in taxes, but their tax rate would be lower.

For many Baltimore voters, the most exciting thing about Tuesday's primary may be the flashy new voting system.Computerized machines -- 962 in all -- will be used for the first time at 254 polling places as voters choose from among 277 candidates vying to run in November for positions ranging from governor to clerk of the courts.But given the shortage of truly competitive statewide primary races, and the fact that the top city offices -- mayor, city comptroller and council -- are not on the ballot until next year, few voters are expected to show up to try the machines out.The city elections chief and officials of the Republican and Democratic parties are predicting that no more than one in three registered voters will bother to come to the polls.

WASHINGTON -- In his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996, publisher Steve Forbes always evoked enthusiastic applause when he promised to abolish the tax code.But shooting off your mouth on the campaign trail is one thing and simply abolishing the code with a single stroke is quite another -- although that is precisely what the Republicans who control the House of Representatives have pledged themselves to accomplish. They have passed, 219-209, a mind-boggling bill that would require Congress to write a new tax system by July 4, 2002, then scrap the current code at the end of the same year.

WASHINGTON -- In an election-year move Republican leaders had hoped would send a powerful political message, the House voted yesterday to abolish the much-hated federal income tax code -- but by a margin so thin the bill's future is bleak.Responding to a grass-roots campaign by small businesses, House GOP leaders turned a bumper-sticker crusade launched last fall into a piece of legislation that would wipe off the books by 2003 a 5.5 million-word tax code widely acknowledged to be painfully complex.

YOU DO not have to be an anti-Washington talk show host to be fed up with our federal income tax structure. Millions of Americans are overwhelmed by the complexity of our tax system; corporate America is snowed under a myriad regulations.Washington is brimming with talk about doing away with our graduated income tax. From flat tax proponents to champions of a national retail sales tax, tax reform is a "hot" issue on Capitol Hill.But many of these proposals are flawed. For all of the problems with our current tax system, one of the things it does reasonably well is collect the revenues needed to run our federal government on a progressive basis.

Congratulations! You just filed your tax return. You and the Internal Revenue Service are quits for another year (barring mistakes and audits, of course).It was a hellish struggle. W-2. Form 1040. Schedule A. The work sheet to see if you need to file Form Something-or-other. Earned income. Unearned income. Early withdrawals from IRA. Alternative Minimum Tax. A 54-line form to separate $85 worth of capital gains into three categories.There must be, you are thinking, an easier way.In fact, many easier ways to collect America's taxes are under study.