simplification, go right ahead in - a - separate - thread. It's unlikely I'll be participating because it's like arguing with true believers over their religion. Here, we're discussing how the tax prep lobby has spread around money to the tax writers ("Money is speech!" - Justice Scalia) to prohibit the IRS from starting the service for free, just as a bunch of other lobbies spread around their money to get various items into or out of the tax code. Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, there is no "GUVCO" behind this. "We the People" at various level are responsible for the complications in the tax code. If this thread was supposed to be a back door into arguing over simplification, I'm outta here.