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Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day for April 17, 2017
The Number of the Day columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
April 17, 2017: Tomorrow is the deadline for Americans to file individual income tax returns, and the cost of complying is far more than frayed nerves and frustration. Americans will spend $29.6 billion on tax preparation fees and/or software.
Additionally, the average American will spend 13 hours gathering the necessary materials and filling out the forms required by the IRS. That leads to a total of $65 billion worth of time spent in tax preparation (calculated by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, based upon the average hourly wage for time spent in tax preparation).
The tax code leading to all this effort is 2.4 million words long—and there are 7.7 million additional words of regulations expanding on the code. Put it all together and there are 10.1 million words dictating how much Americans must pay.
The 1040 form is still the basic tax document filed by most Americans. In 2015, it was 79 lines long and supported by a 211-page instruction book.
Twenty years earlier, the 1040 form was 66 lines long and had an 84-page instruction book. Back in 1975, the form itself was a bit shorter at 54 lines. However, the instructions were much shorter and required only a 39-page booklet.[1]
- Friday commemorated the 70th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the Major League color barrier.
- Thursday's number looked at the 261 million visits to the IRS website in 2017.
- Wednesday's number looked at the 20 percent of Americans who bought groceries from online-only stores in 2016.
- To see other recent numbers, check out the archive.
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