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I don't know if speacial is the right word to discribe me, but I can say in all honesty I am soooooooooooo relieved! 20 years ago was the last time I had to pass any type of graded test, that's when I became a CTEC registered tax preparer (in California we've had to complete an initial test, and then continued education each year for as long as I've been preparing taxes). The difference between then and now is that then I just came off a class of book learning, now I've had 20 years experience. The most difficult part of the exam in my opinion was trying to over think the questions. Some were extremely easy but some required serious thought, and the harder I thought the worse it got, so I finally took a sensible approach and tried to answer the question by asking my self what seems to be the most reasonable choice, and who knows if I was right or wrong, it really doesn't matter because overall I passed! Deb!

Its not fair that some do not pay any tax. Its not fair to charge anyone more than anyone else.

Not so much on the "progressive" rates. If you live in an area with a high cost of living (NYC, LA, San Francisco - you can rattle them off as well as I can), an income that would be extremely comfortable in Dubuque is barely subsistence level. One could make a good case for higher tax rates for income brackets in lower-cost zones. The whole basis of taxing income instead of consumption is nuts. Consumption is easier to define, easier to track, much harder to escape - even career criminals eat out, buy cars, blue jeans - even black pull-over hoods, LOL. As soon as you say "income" -- well, define income. With deductions. Exemptions. Depreciation. Depreciation recapture. Exclusions. With that one word, an entire can of worms is opened up. Plus it penalizes people for doing well - when they could be investing that income (and that includes putting it in a savings account; that is one source of where capital to borrow comes from) and thereby help others to do better (or at least make the attempt).

I had another problem with that refunable tax credit complaint. His only complaint is that it is "refundable" and mentions that people who owe no tax can get this check. So, is he really saying it's OK for high income people to fraudulently take this credit since it will simply reduce their taxes? Or, perhaps he is saying that only low income people would make a fraudulent claim? In my opinion, fraudulently claiming a credit is wrong regardless of if it is refundable or not no matter how much income you have. But that's just me.

I wanted to comment on this below the article, but couldn't figure out how to get registered on the site. "For example, an individual who owes no tax for 2011 can collect a $13,360 refundable tax credit by fraudulently claiming he adopted a child and including Form 8839 (Qualified Adoption Expenses) with his Form 1040, along with some easily-manufactured bogus paperwork. He won't get caught for stealing the $13,360 unless he gets audited, which is pretty unlikely. I hate to be the one to publicize this low-risk fraud opportunity, but there you go." This is soooo inflamatory. Whatever you might think about the adoption credit and/or the refundable portion, it wasn't easy to obtain. Every single return with this credit was audited. Not exactly a low-risk opportunity for fraud. Most preparers complained how long it took for the returns to be processed, and the extreme amount of paperwork that had to be submitted. One of my new clients claimed the credit last year (I didn't prepare it), but I did see the audit report, where for a requested credit of $909, they could not find a reciept for $59. The credit was reduced by that amount. For all those who want a flat tax; AMT is it. Unfortunately it doesn't target whom it should any more. I'm all for finally indexing the exemption to a level that doesn't reflect 'weathy' circa 1969. And to stop playing politics with the tax code. Don't buy votes with tax credits, deductions, exemptions, etc. Stop with the Grover Norquist pledges, and determine what level of taxation is necessary to run the country, and tax that. The yearly uncertainty is worst for businesses than a slight increase in taxes would be. Do you all realize that 2011 was the first year in over 10 in which last minute crap wasn't pulled at the end of the year? I was amazed when my tax software showed up by Thanksgiving.