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Hereelaborations on “stuff” that appeared in earlier posts.+ The“Last Word” of a recent BUZZ installment proposed a federal law.   Here isthe idea, slightly adjusted -  Let uspass a federal law that says (1) Taxlegislation CANNOT be temporary.  Exceptfor declared natural disasters or an official declaration of war, anylegislation that makes a change to the US Tax Code will automatically bepermanent, unless revised or repealed by specific subsequent legislation.And (2) Exceptfor declared natural disasters or an official declaration of war, any taxlegislation passed after September 30th cannot take effect until January 1st ofthe next year.Writteninto the legislation should be a requirement that a 2/3 majority of both housesof Congress would be needed to repeal or revise this law.Temporarytax law is not good tax policy (except perhaps for dealing with declarednatural disasters like KATRINA and SANDY). In the past the idiots in Congress have consistently extended the temporarytax breaks that become known as the “extenders”, often waiting until literallythe very last minute, and as a result causing problems and delays with the IRSprinting of forms and instructions and processing of returns, and confusingtaxpayers.The IRShad usually “gone to press” with tax forms, schedules and instructions for theyear in October.  Putting a September 30^thdeadline on making changes to the Tax Code in the current year will allow theIRS to return to this schedule.  It willalso make year-end tax planning much easier for individuals and businesses, asthey will know what will be in effect for the year during the last quarter andhave plenty of time to plan accordingly.+ Below isa recent comment on my post WHY WE NEED TAX REFORM by new tax blogger DavidFazio, EA -“You hit the nail squarely on the head: theCash for Clunkers program was a success because it kept the IRS out of theprocess. Taxpayers got their government discount (the equivalent of an IRS taxcredit) at the point of sale. They didn't have to wait up to a year to reap thebenefit. We have become a nation of deductionjunkies. Congress has tweaked the code so much that we start to feel that everydollar we spend should be deductible. We have special deductions/credits forteachers, adoption, child care, income earned outside the US, education,student loan interest and so on. Does a teacher with out-of-pocketexpenses deserve an above-the-line $250 deduction more than the schoolcafeteria worker who doesn't itemize and has $15 deducted out of her paycheckevery week for her uniform? Does the college graduate deserve a specialdeduction for his student loan interest when a Hurricane Sandy victim can'tdeduct interest on the credit card he's incurring while he's rebuilding hishome and waiting for the insurance check? Now no one said he taxcode was fair. But too many perks are being handed out via the 1040 that (asyou pointed out) are completely unnecessary.”Greatminds do think alike!  I havealways been confused by the $250 deduction for “educator expenses”.  The tax savings is $60-$70 for most educators.  Depending on where you live, this barelycovers the cost of a dinner out.  Andwhy, as David asks, were educators singled out. Are they more valuable than policemen, firemen, nurses, EMTs, or evenschool cafeteria workers, all of whom have “out of pocket” employee expenses?Therecipient of a special tax break, whatever it is, depends on either how muchthe recipient’s lobby pays the idiots in Congress to vote for it, or which special-interestgroup the idiots in Congress want to buy the votes of. David alsotalks about the student loan interest deduction, which is part of a group oftax benefits related to post-secondary education.  But, as I have said time and again, thisgroup should be replaced by direct “point of purchase” student financial aid.TTFN