This new tax form is the size of a postcard — but only because it leaves out important stuff

Trump tax form.
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The Republican tax reform plan has accomplished one of President Trump's fondest dreams: development of a tax form the size of a postcard. But there's a catch: Our income tax system is still super complicated, so the postcard is small not because the process has been simplified but because it leaves out important details.

For example, it includes a line for the expanded child tax credit but excludes other child care costs. Particularly confusing is a line which requires taxpayers to consult one of six accompanying worksheets, find and tally a number of popular deductions, and then come back to the postcard to enter the result.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.