Beware! (Spammers or the Tax Code?)

Please calmly disregard the fact that, this year, you have probably already violated 35 different provisions of the tax code.

This sobering fortune cookie (a fortune cookie?) warns gullible email users to be wary of email tax scams.

To be candid, I'm more wary about the busy-ness of the Web page and the, unfathomable, impenetrable, and unintelligible wording of the tax code itself.  (I think these other words also describe the code well.)

Here's a telling example:

2. Investment income.

The term “investment income” means the sum of—

(i)  gross income from property held for investment (other than any gain taken into account under clause (ii)(I)),

(ii)  the excess (if any) of—

(I)  the net gain attributable to the disposition of property held for investment, over

(II)  the net capital gain determined by only taking into account gains and losses from dispositions of property held for investment, plus

(iii) so much of the net capital gain referred to in clause (ii)(II) (or, if lesser, the net gain referred to in clause (ii)(I)) as the taxpayer elects to take into account under this clause.

Such term shall include qualified income (as defined in section 1(h)(11)(B)) only to the extent the taxpayer elects to treat such income as investment income for purposes of this subsection.

Sorry, Professor M!

P.S.  You remember the evil villain named Zoltran from Space Ghost Coast to Coast?  Turns out he was actually in a famous case on child tax credits:  Zoltran v. Commissioner, 79 T.C. 490 (1982).  Who knew?