As I traveled around the 3^rd District earlier this month, I had the opportunity to speak with many of you and one reoccurring concern was about our broken tax system. Many believe it is far too inefficient, time-consuming and costly.

And people’s interest in our current tax system always spikes as Tax Day approaches and the deadline for Americans to file their incomes taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the state.

In the past decade, there have been over 4,000 changes to the tax code, including more than 579 changes in 2010 alone. Individuals and small businesses spend over six billion hours and $160 billion, every year, trying to understand and comply with the tax code. In 1955, there were 409,000 words in the entire tax code. Today there are 3.8 million words and on the IRS web site there are at least 480 tax forms.

Given that reality, it is no wonder that over 90 percent of Americans either pay someone else to do our taxes or purchase commercial software to help us do it ourselves.

In the House of Representatives, we are working on tax reform that will make a difference for small businesses and families. I am a proud co-sponsor of the Tax Code Termination Act, which would terminate our broken tax code. First, it would abolish the Internal Revenue Code by December 31, 2017. Second, it would call on Congress to approve a new federal tax system by July of the same year. This bipartisan legislation would end the broken tax system that exists in our country and also show you that the House is serious about tax reform.

We need a tax system that rewards Americans for hard-work, entrepreneurship, investment and innovation. Simply put, the current tax code is a nightmare. Our families and small businesses deserve a tax code that is simple and fair. Americans also deserve certainty and that comes from a stronger economy. Families are seeing their wages drop and recent college graduates are having trouble finding a job. Part of the solution is tax reform that lowers tax rates so families can save more, so employers have the opportunity to hire and invest, and there are more jobs for workers.