John Edwards Debuts Saturday Podcasts
April 7, 2007, 12:58pm
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards debuted a series of issue-oriented podcasts this morning, focusing his initial episode on his proposal to overhaul the system for filing federal income taxes.
He touted his plan for “Form 1,” a tax form that would just have to be signed and returned. “For as many as 50 million Americans, the IRS already has all the information it needs to be able to calculate the taxes. It already gets it from employers and from banks,” Edwards said. “But it still makes taxpayers waste days gathering their information, hunched over tax forms and tax tables, calculator trying to figure it all out, just to actually tell the IRS the information it already has.”
Instead, he said the IRS should “crunch the numbers itself and send taxpayers the information.” His proposal still would let people hire accountants to complete more detailed returns or to claim charitable deductions, though they would not be able to use Form 1.
Edwards added that his plan would benefit low-income Americans who are eligible for but do not currently claim the earned-income tax credit, and he criticized professional tax-preparers who oppose the idea simply because it would hurt their businesses.
Categories: Podcast of the Week, Presidency 2008, John Edwards, Taxes
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April 10th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
[…] News from the Edwards campaign: John Edwards Debuts Saturday Podcasts (my mom will have to learn to use mp3s), and also modifies online fundraising practice to be nicer to folks who are sending supportive messages to his wife. […]