A Taxing Time of Year

“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Uncle Sam, that all the nation should be taxed…And all went to be taxed, every one into his own living room, or accountant’s office, or TurboTax program.”

Luke 2:1 and 3 with italics indicating words modernized for today’s reader!!

The National Taxpayers Union (who is a member of this union?!) projects that it takes the average American nearly 26 hours to gather, organize, complete, and file their tax return. For an accountant this number of hours is staggering. I think I spent less than 45 minutes preparing my own tax return and probably less than that for each of the returns of my siblings and parents (Of course, that may explain why my parents’ return has been selected for IRS review for the past two years!!!) If you are one of these recipients of professional pro bono work then I actually slaved away for hours.

I readily acknowledge that my education, 11 years of professional experience, and the all important three letter CPA after my name on my business card make it quite simple to fill out an IRS form without going cross-eyed or swearing after reading the instructions for what number to insert in a particular box. Is it really any surprise that people resort to such odd methods of preparing their tax return as exhibited here:

Unfortunately the tax forms aren’t that easy. At least in completing a Sudoku puzzle there is only one correct answer. With your taxes there is no correct answer because the only correct answer to a person preparing their tax return is a refund. Am I right? Who wants to complete their tax return and find out that they owe Uncle Sam more money? Certainly not me. If I were to owe on my tax return I would try to find something else to reduce my tax bill so that it goes away. Would you like to say this to the IRS?

I don’t have an answer to this taxing situation other than to say that simplification of the tax law is needed, but unlikely.

Tax preparation and compliance is big business. The federal government’s own accountants, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), think Americans pay at least $250 billion annually to tax preparers to file all sorts of tax returns.

Have you seen the tax law in published form? I have. I can remember having to purchase the tax law for one of my tax research classes back in 1995. The tax law was two volumes. It was several thousand pages of very small type. I don’t know the exact number and it looks like politicians don’t either (see this link). All anyone needs to know is that no one understands it all and I am not so sure that it was ever intended to be understood.


So with the tax deadline behind you (unless of course you filed Form 4868 Application for Automatic Extension of time to file U.S. Individual Tax Return) rest assured that it isn’t going to get any less taxing in terms of time or money next year.