Comment by krupan
7 months ago
I had to google this name and I found that he "makes" them sign a pledge to not raise taxes and to simplify tax laws, not to a pledge to oppose easier tax filing.
7 months ago
I had to google this name and I found that he "makes" them sign a pledge to not raise taxes and to simplify tax laws, not to a pledge to oppose easier tax filing.
Well, there are two things going on here.
Norquist does oppose efforts by the IRS to (partially) obviate TurboTax by having the IRS do your taxes [1].
Separately, he has the anti-tax pledge you mention. The former is not entailed by the latter, at least in any obvious way.
So the parent is right about Norquist opposing filing simplification, but wrong about it being related to the infamous pledge.
[1] For those asking for a citation, here's a recent tweet: https://x.com/GroverNorquist/status/1912592196894630291
They're specifically against automatic tax calculation because they think making everyone do the work themselves encourages keeping it simple.
I've seen this cited on HN a bunch but haven't seen anyone link to a source and nor have I found one. Is there a source for this claim, or is it just inference from their behavior?