A terribly flawed system. Whenever you can put yourself in a position to pay less you create an incentive to cheat the system. I am for the "fair tax"...basically a national sales tax and no tax on income, no deductions, no cap gains and revenue neutral. No one could avoid paying tax by positioning themselves in such a away as to find a loophole or advantage. As soon as you spend, you pay. It also encourages saving which I think more people whould be better off if they did. http://fairtaxcalculator.org/