Interesting Facts About Income Tax

Taxes are technically voluntary.

In spite of the fact that the IRS spends a great amount of it’s resources on “voluntary tax enforcement,” the U.S. Income tax is technically voluntary. The IRS simply goes to great lengths to make U.S. citizens feel as obligated as possible to pay it.

Taxes are descriminatory.

Taxes are one very notable area in which the U.S. government does in fact descriminate against various groups of people. Straight couples are treated differently that gay couples. Homeowners are treated differently than renters. Those who are well-to-do are treated differently than those who are poor. Families are treated differently than single people. Married couples are treated differently than those who are not. In some cases, these rules benefit the people affected by them, but in many other cases, they cause only harm or unneccesary expense.

The U.S. Tax Code is ten times longer than the Bible!

Congress, rather hilariously, seems to deny that the U.S. Tax code is long or complicated at all. However, it contains so many pages of compex rules, restrictions, regulations, and procedures that it amounts to several thousand pages of fine print. As if being long weren’t enough, all of the tax code is in written in such bizarre legalese wording that it’s nearly impossible for the average American to comprehend.

Congress is still trying to figure out what “income” is.

Although “income” tax has been charged for over 90 years, Congress is still quite fuzzy on exactly what “income” is. There are countless different things that aren’t taxed, in spite of bringing wealth to the wealthy. There are countless other things that are taxed, in spite of the fact that they should not count as income at all. Some things are even taxed twice, while others aren’t taxed at all.

Tax forms have become 40x more complicated since 1940.

No, you weren’t imagining things. The IRS forms used by American households to determine how to fill out their tax returns have grown more and more complex by the year. From the years 1940 to 2004, the tax instructions the IRS expects U.S. households to read have multiplied in length and complexity by over 40 times!

About 2 million Americans overpay on their taxes each year.

Due to the fact that they don’t understand the forms they are filling out, many Americans don’t report deductions that they could claim, and therefore overpay significantly on their taxes. If the IRS tax forms were simpler and easier to comprehend, Americans would only pay what the IRS demanded. Of course, this doesn’t do much to motivate the IRS to simplify it’s forms!

There are more tax accountants than soldiers in the U.S.

Thanks once again to IRS form complexity, Americans often need to hire a professional tax preparation accountant to file their taxes with the IRS each year. To meet this need, a massive industry of over 1.2 million tax accountants has sprung up. The number of tax accountants in the United States is greater than the number of soldiers enlisted in the U.S. Army.

More than 1/3 of American Households don’t pay federal income tax.

You may be shocked to find that more than one third of the U.S. population does not pay federal income tax at all. This number has grown each year for the last 3 decades. Most of these people decline to pay federal income tax, and instead pay only their state’s income tax.

American families spend an average of $1000 per year complying with taxes.

Thanks to the many fees and expenses associated with tax services, tax attourneys, accountants, postage, and other fees, American families spend over $140 billion dollars every year complying with taxes. This amounts to approximately $1000 per family, every single year.