MANCHESTER — Filing a tax return would be as easy as paying a credit card bill if Congress adopted a simplified one-page return, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen said Tuesday.
The former governor and current candidate for U.S. Senate stood outside a post office to explain her RapidReturn proposal, which would allow anyone who takes standard deductions and does not itemize to receive a one-page form already filled out by the Internal Revenue Service. All a taxpayer would have to do is sign the form and send it back.
"Every year on April 15, Tax Day, people go to the post offices all over New Hampshire to mail their tax returns, and most people are tired, and they're frustrated, and they think there's got to be a better way," she said. "Well, I agree. I think there is a better way."
Instituting a voluntary RapidReturn system would save billions in wasted time and money, Shaheen said. Although the IRS already offers a short 1040-EZ form, she said an estimated 1/2 of taxpayers using that form pay a tax preparer even though they are filling out the easiest form available. And those who do it themselves spend an average of seven hours completing the form, she said.
"It's frustrating, it's expensive, it's unnecessarily complicated, and I think we need to simplify the tax return," she said.
Shaheen's opponent, Republican Sen. John Sununu, said Americans don't need new tax forms, they need a new tax code that's simple, honest and fair.
"Instead, we have rules that change every year, many that expire in one or two years, and three different systems, one for those who itemize deductions, one for those who don't, and an Alternative Minimum Tax, which affects thousands it was never intended to cover," he said in a statement. "I have championed fundamental tax reform since my first term in Congress."
After her news conference, Shaheen mingled with anti-war protesters outside who were marking Tax Day by reminding residents how much of their tax dollars are being spent in Iraq. Several held oversized checks representing the $2.1 billion they say the war has cost New Hampshire taxpayers so far and argued that money would be better spent domestically on everything from health care to veterans' benefits.
"At a time when our country is in a recession, to spend trillions of dollars on a reckless, endless war and tax cuts for millionaires makes no sense," said Cathy Silber of New Hampshire Citizens Alliance for Action.
Beryl Brink, 77, of Nashua, said she is so disgusted by the war spending that she declined to file a return in order to get her economic stimulus check from the federal government.
"Why should my grandchildren pay for that?" she said. "It's not right. We shouldn't be borrowing money from China so people can go to Wal-Mart and buy things."
Shaheen said she supports the protesters' message.
"I do think we need to end the war in Iraq. I think we need to start bringing our troops home, and I think we need to take those billions of dollars and start using it for priorities here at home," she said.
