EMERSON SAYS CONGRESS SHOULD SIMPLIFY TAX CODE

Congress needs to restructure the nation's complicated tax code and make the Internal Revenue Service more user friendly, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson said Tuesday.

The Cape Girardeau Republican voiced her comments at a meeting she hosted of business and economic development officials.

About 30 people attended. Tuesday's gathering was another in a series of business and economic development advisory team meetings hosted by Emerson, who is in her first term. She plans to seek re-election in 1998.

Emerson said the federal tax code needs to be simplified. The current tax code covers 71,000 pages and has 7 million words.

The tax code could be simplified through a flat tax or by replacing the income tax with a national sales tax, she said. Emerson said the merits of those two alternatives are the subject of debate in Congress.

"I don't think we will come to any conclusions in the next 10 to 12 months," she said.

Restructuring the tax code could eliminate the need for the 14,000 lobbyists who continue to press Congress for tax loopholes, she said.

"I am just hopeful we are going to be successful in changing the IRS code," said Emerson.

Emerson urged meeting participants to report to her office any IRS abuses.

She said the House is considering legislation that would allow taxpayers to recoup legal fees when the IRS wrongly accuses them of tax violations. It also would establish an oversight board of citizens with financial expertise to help ride herd on the agency, she said.