As people rush to get their income tax returns in today, we offer a few thoughts on what Oliver Wendell Holmes called "the price of civilization."

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Normally, income taxes are due on April 15, a date that is only historically significant because it is the anniversary of both the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912 and the death of Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

However, if April 15 falls on a weekend, then the following Monday becomes the deadline for income taxes.

This year is different. Washington, D.C., observed Emancipation Day on Monday. Emancipation Day is the anniversary of Lincoln's order freeing slaves in the nation's capital. Since the Internal Revenue Service is based in Washington, the district holiday means all taxpayers get a one-day reprieve.

Little did Lincoln realize that when he freed those slaves, far more people would be breathing a sigh of relief for having an extra day to put off their tax returns.

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As anyone who's had to wrestle with an income tax return knows, this is not the simplest way to finance a government.

In 1913 when the tax was first imposed the return consisted of a mere four pages. Today, the instructions for filling out a standard form 1040 take up more than 100 pages, written in language that makes VCR owner's manuals look like models of clarity.

There has to be a better way, many frustrated taxpayers believe.

Well, maybe there is. (No, we're not talking about Steve Forbes' flat tax that could be contained on the back of a postcard. We've given up on income tax ever being that simple as long as there are accountants and lawyers out there.)

For several years, various groups have proposed a national sales tax as a replacement for income tax. The idea is to put a 23 percent tax on all taxable items and services. It would be collected at the point of purchase and turned over to the federal government.

The plan is seductively simple. It would eliminate withholding taxes as well as estate and gift taxes. There would be no returns to fill out and no need to hold onto various receipts for tax purposes. Best of all, proponents argue, is that everyone would pay since there would be no way to hide money from the government.

Of course, there are some problems. Sales taxes tend to be regressive if applied to necessities such as food, since the poor spend a greater percentage of their income on those goods. It would drive up the cost of most consumer goods and services, but proponents say that any increase would be offset by eliminating withholding taxes, giving people more money to spend.

And the IRS would pretty much go out of business.

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Let's face it. Almost everyone's been tempted at one time or another to cheat on income taxes.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Utah saw a wave of people using illegal trusts to hide assets from the tax man, while others were calling themselves "sovereign citizens" who were exempt from taxes. A few knaves even took the term "voluntary tax" as meaning that compliance was optional. (No, it's not. "Voluntary" means you have to fill out the forms and turn over the money to the government, rather than being handed a bill.)

Some people look for more subtle means to cheat Uncle Sam out of his due, such as exaggerating deductions. This is a bad idea. The number of audits has gone up: overall, 1.3 million Americans were audited in 2006, a 6 percent increase. That works out to about a one-in-100 chance of the IRS going over your return with a fine-tooth comb. While that seems like long odds, getting audited is far more likely than being struck by lightning or winning a lottery.

If that's not enough to deter you, consider this: Al Capone, the ruthless Chicago gangster, was not sent to federal prison for racketeering, bootlegging or even the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Scarface was sentenced to prison for tax evasion -- he didn't pay taxes on his ill-gotten gain. Thus the IRS did what Elliot Ness and the "Untouchables" couldn't.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A5.