Stack's note claims that his problems stem from $12,000 in unreported income that his wife had, and a piano that had been claimed as a business expense or asset that the IRS said was not. He also mentioned having his retirement reset to 0, but hey, that's about as common as having freckles or wearing glasses.
This caused him to destroy a house worth $250,000 and a plane that is probably worth $20,000 to $40,000. The unpaid tax on $12,000 might have been $4,000 at most, maybe doubled with penalties especially given his previous tax problems, and if he had written off a piano he should not have, at most that is another $5,000 in income - I'm presuming he didn't buy a Steinway Grand or something, if so I hope that also wasn't burned in the house.
His note also failed to mention that his ex-cultist wife had left him the day before. It is possible based on the manner in which the house burned that he had booby trapped in an attempt to kill her.
Now, this aspect of the tax code probably is screwed up. But it's a little like deciding to pass gun legislation in the heated atmosphere following a mass shooting; do we really want people in the mental condition of the last days of Joe Stack to be dictating our tax reform debate ?
If you cleared your mind of all the emotive pictures and chatter of the last week, and sat down and looked at the tax code and picked something that needed changing, would the treatment of technical contractors really be at the top of the list ? There's a lot of crap in there, from how deductions are counted for leasing versus purchase to whatever causes all those big corporations to pay no tax year after year.
Also, if you pick Joe Stack in his final days as your guide in tax law, note that he also complained bitterly about the tax exemptions of churches, particularly the Catholic church. I don't see the Joe Stack fans arguing for a change in that.