As we begin the tax return season, millions of middle-class Americans will discover, to their shock, that an unpredictable, especially punitive parallel tax system stands alongside the ordinary income tax.
Many of them will be ensnared by the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was designed originally to snag very wealthy individuals whose only sin was to make full use of available tax deductions.
Many hours and a lot of money will be spent on preparing tax returns.
Couldn't there be a simpler, fairer way?
That's the idea proposed by economist Steve Moore, president of the Free Enterprise Fund.
And rather than even attempt to mesh with the current crazy quilt of tax rules and laws, Moore suggests setting up the flat tax as an option.
Taxpayers could choose whichever system is to their best advantage: The traditional income tax and all of its deductions, exclusions and special credits; the Alternative Minimum Tax; or a 20 percent flat tax.
Moore, who details his plan in a provocative Wall Street Journal essay, would attach just two catches to his plan: All new workers would be enrolled in the 20 percent flat tax; and, second, once a taxpayer has chosen the flat tax he can't switch back to one of the other systems.
Therefore, the huge mass of IRS tax rules and regulations eventually would sunset.
If Congress and the Bush administration are serious about pursuing a broad rewrite of the tax code, then Moore's plan is a good place to start.