Your Taxes, in 10 Minutes

Germany possesses one of them most dense, lengthy and complicated tax codes around. If Paul Kirchhof gets his way, that will change. "The average German employee won't need twelve Saturdays a year to do his taxes, he'll need 10 minutes." The man chancellor candidate Angela Merkel called into her "shadow" cabinet as possible finance minister told Germany's mass daily Bild said that a computer chip or computer-generated tax form, sent to employees from the finance authorities, should streamline the process and lighten their load. Critics of the current government say tax reform is one of the German economy's most pressing needs. But political infighting within Merkel's Christian Democratic Union as well as the ruling Social Democrats has deterred attempts to streamling the code. SPD Finance Minister Hans Eichel was quick to slam the proposal by Kirchhof, a former consitutional court judge. An Eichel spokesman said Kirchhof's quotes "deceived the public."