Just Fix It

Every now and then, you hear something that is just so obviously wrong, it is simply baffling as to why it hasn't ever been fixed. 

This morning I heard that Austalia has 120 taxes.  Now that would seem to me to be a large number, but what's really astonishing is that 110 of them combined raise only 10% of the total revenue collected.  You just know that when you see something like this, you are looking at some makeshift, patchwork approach to taxation.  It begs the question - why not just get rid of those 110 taxes and adjust the other 10 to raise the required revenue?

Not only would there be no shortfall in tax collected but money would also be being saved, both for the government and the taxpayer, through simplifying the process.  Any criticism over the increases to the other taxes could easily be countered by pointing out that 110 taxes have vanished (and which politician wouldn't like to be able to take the credit for having made that happen).  The only people who would be unhappy would be accountants and lawyers, so it must be a good idea.