In celebrating everyone’s least favorite, forced federal holiday, let’s take a look at what makes our tax code so… special.
It’s lengthy.
Today’s tax code contains almost four million words.
It’s time consuming.
Individuals and businesses spend 6.1 billion hours a year on tax filings. For individuals, the estimated average time burden for all taxpayers filing a Form 1040, 1040A, or 1040EZ is 13 hours.
It’s expensive.
Tax compliance costs are 65% higher for small businesses than big businesses, costing small-business owners $18-$19 billion per year. Paperwork alone comes to $72.24 per hour. For larger, corporate-tax payers, America’s is the highest in the world.
It’s wasteful.
U.S. taxpayers pay $431.1 billion annually in compliance costs, known as “the complexity tax.”
It’s complicated.
There are over 800 currently active tax forms. And to figure these forms out, America has 1.2 million paid tax preparers in the United States. That’s more than law enforcement officers and professional firefighters combined.
It’s unfair.
The percentage of Americans who think their income taxes are fair is at its lowest since 2001. The “tax gap” –the amount of taxes due but not paid—is approximately $400 billion per year.
Share your least favorite part of the tax code:
