The Honorable Amory Houghton
Chairman, Oversight Subcommittee
House ways and Means Committee
United States House of Representatives
Washington DC 20515
August 7, 2001

Subject : Tax Simplification..Let Seniors us the 1040EZ short form

Dear Mr. Chairman:

I wish to congratulate you, along with fellow members Congress and the President on reducing taxes for all American taxpayers. This burden is more than financial, It is also in many cases a totally unnecessary torture test created by the complexity of the Forms and Instructions designed to assist us in complying with Internal Revenue Code. Mr. Chairman, it lies in your power to eliminate this curse for the majority of Americans and especially for our Senior Citizens. I speak of the totally unnecessary restrictions which prevent Seniors and others from using the simple 1040EZ short tax form.

This tax form, which does not allow Itemized deductions is currently used by about 16% of taxpayers none of whom are Seniors. The IRS currently forbids any taxpayer over the age of 65 from using this simple form with its two page instruction set . It forces me and my fellow Seniors to slog through a 61 page instruction set, many parts of which are totally unintelligible. ( I myself can not understand a large part of this even though I have a masters degree in Engineering from Yale university with a strong Mathematics minor.)

The IRS currently also forbids any taxpayer from using this simple tax form if they earn more than $400 in interest income or earn any income whatsoever from Dividends, Pensions or IRA distributions, Mr. Chairman, each of these types of income are taxed the same as wages and are reported to both the
taxpayer and to the IRS on form 1099. We are trusted to copy these figures on tax forms 1040A and 1040 why not 1040EZ??

I ask for you assistance in this matter not only for Seniors but for the 54 percent of citizens who do not choose to itemize their deductions , yet are not allowed to join the 16 percent who currently use the short form.

For three years, I along with fellow members of the National Silver Haired Congress have Petitioned Congress to make these changes. I personally have discussed this matter with staff members of both Minority and Majority leaders of the Senate Finance Committee as well as the House Ways and Means Committee. Congressman Chris Cox has agreed to carry legislation to accomplish this and has asked for comments from the Treasury Department. I have spoken briefly on this matter with Assistant Treasury Secretary for Tax Policy, Pamela Olson and at length with Senior Economic Advisor J.D. Foster.

It is not often that congress has the opportunity to bring meaningful tax relief to millions of Americans at NO LOSS IN GOVERNMENT REVENUE.
I humbly ask for your assistance in bringing this common sense reform to Senior Citizens and others nation wide



Roland A. Boucher, Chairman