Fox News is asking the question, “Is it time to overhaul the IRS?”

I say, no, but not for any of the reasons offered by Fox.  It’s time to overhaul our tax code to simplify it to a single flat tax at, say, 10% with no deductions, credits, subsidies, exceptions, differences depending on source of income, or what-have-you, and that everyone pays.

How much money did you make from all sources (wages, cash payments, interest, capital gains, dividends, gambling, etc)?  Pay 10% of that total.  Based on 2007 numbers (i.e., pre-Panic), that actually would increase revenue to Uncle Sugar by a substantial amount.  That’s only a static analysis.  Considering the ripple effects on our pocketbooks and so on our economy—which would take off—that would yield an even more substantial amount of revenue for the government.

Then we can restructure the IRS (as opposed to merely reform it) to vastly shrink it and limit it to the tax bookkeeping function that’s all it would need to be.  At those low tax rates and with no…deductions…there’s no need for an IRS division for special exemptions for this or that organization, no need for an IRS division to gather data and enforce the Obamacare suite of taxes (which would be included in the tax overhaul), no need for eight of the nine IRS divisions in Services and Enforcement.  The rest of the major sections—all overhead—could then be reduced or eliminated.

But first things first.