Tax Complexity Now Costs the US Economy Over $546 Billion Annually

The above is the title of a study prepared by the Tax Foundation.  Here are some of the findings highlighted in the study.
 

• The direct cost of the federal income tax code is the $4.9 trillion in federal taxes that consume 17 percent of US gross domestic product (GDP).
• The economists at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have determined Individual and corporate income taxes are the most harmful for economic growth.
• A less direct cost is the precious time taken out of our lives to comply with a Byzantine tax code that requires billions of hours completing mountains of IRS paperwork and tax returns.
• In 2023, Americans filed 271.5 million tax returns. Of these, nearly 71 percent, or 192.3 million, were individual and corporate income tax returns, while another 36.3 million were employment tax returns.
• According to the latest estimates from the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Americans will spend more than 7.9 billion hours complying with IRS tax filing and reporting requirements in 2024.
• This is equal to 3.8 million full-time workers doing nothing but tax return paperwork—roughly equal to the population of Los Angeles—and nearly 46 times the workforce at the IRS.
• As an alternative way to see the huge additional compliance burden imposed on businesses, consider that the IRS estimates it takes 13 hours on average to comply with the main individual form, the 1040; 9 hours for individuals without business income and 24 hours for individuals with business income. As bad as it may sound to spend three full days filing individual income taxes, corporations have it worse: the IRS estimates it takes 105 hours on average to comply with form 1120, the main form for taxable corporations. For small corporations it takes 55 hours, and for large corporations it takes 830 hours, more than 20 weeks.
• Assuming a reasonable hourly wage, the 7.9 billion hours Americans spend complying with the tax code costs the economy roughly $413 billion in lost productivity.
• In addition, the IRS estimates that Americans spend roughly $133 billion annually in out-of-pocket costs to comply with the tax code. This brings the total compliance costs to $546 billion, or nearly 2 percent of GDP.
• OIRA estimates (Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs) show that taxpayer compliance now comprises 66 percent of the 12 billion total hours Americans spend complying with federal paperwork and 72 percent of the $184 billion in government-wide out-of-pocket costs for regulations.

CONCLUSION

When you read the information above, you are likely confused and angry that Congress has allowed this abominable income tax system to not only continue but to become more burdensome every year.

Their inaction might be more understandable if there was no alternative that would eliminate the wasted hours and expenses of the present income tax code.  However, the plain truth is that there is an alternative that eliminates the burden on individual citizens and reduces the burdens on businesses by over 90%.

This alternative is the FAIRtax—a simple and progressive national retail sales tax on the retail purchases of new goods and services.  

In addition to removing the compliance burden on Americans, the FAIRtax also:
 

• Taxes imports and provides tax credits to U.S. exporters like all of our trading partners.
• Eliminates the need for most tariffs.
• Brings jobs back to the U.S.
• Eliminates federal taxes up to the poverty level.
• Requires no tax returns for individuals.
• Clearly shows the federal taxes hidden in the prices of the goods we purchase.
• Creates greater economic growth.
• Brings in capital that allows productivity increases and higher wages.
• Eliminate lobbyists and politicians selling tax benefits that harm the rest of us.
• ELIMINATES THE IRS!

We need to move now and put a stake in the heart of the income tax and the IRS so that they cannot be easily resurrected by a subsequent administration.

Many of you have labored tirelessly for freedom from the federal income tax and the IRS.  You deserve a great deal of credit for your efforts to educate the American people on the need to fund the American government in a way that is good for America and returns freedom to the American people.

It is imperative, though, that we don’t replace the current income tax and the IRS with an alternative system that can still be manipulated by the Ruling Elite.  We must let Congress and the President know that the best way to replace the income tax and the IRS is with the FAIRtax. 

Make no mistake about it.  The FAIRtax is a grave threat to the Ruling Elites.  It will strip them of their power and their ability to control us though the tax system.  Their opposition to the FAIRtax will be fierce and unrelenting.  And don’t think for an instant that they won’t use half-truths, deception and downright lies in their desperate attempt to hang on to their power. 

However, with the support of this President, we can finally eliminate the income tax and the IRS!!!

Of course, the best course of action is to not only repeal the income tax and abolish the IRS but to repeal the 16^th Amendment as well so no future administration can ever shackle the American people with an income tax again.

We must come together and ensure that real tax reform, the FAIRtax, is not subverted by the Elites in D.C.

This will take the diligent efforts of all of us.  We need your financial assistance, and we need your grass roots assistance.

If you have contacts that will allow us to get more information to President Trump about the FAIRtax please let us know.

Please email us at info@fairtax.org and we will give you some options on how you can best help us. 

At a minimum, please call your Congressional representative and ask if he or she supports the FAIRtax.  If so, thank him/her for their support and suggest they become a cosponsor of HR-25 if they’re not one already.  If not, ask why not.  If your representative claims to be unfamiliar with the FAIRtax, offer to have someone come to their office and explain it to them. 

Please go to this link to invest in AFFT and help us pass the FAIRtax.  It’s an investment in your and your family’s future. 

THE SOLUTION—PASS THE FAIRTAX!

Why would D.C. pass the FAIRtax and give up this almost unlimited source of donations?  The only way that they will is if the rest of us demand it!
   
Isn’t it time to end this ludicrous tax collection system and the IRS?

HELP BRING ABOUT REAL TAX REFORM AND STOP FUTURE IRS ABUSES

By contributing (investing) $10.40 per month, you help provide a financial base to AFFT.  If you can make larger contributions (investments), these will be used not for salaries, as we are all volunteers, but for the needed updates to our economic studies which will be vital for all future years.
 
Please go to this link to invest in AFFT and help us pass the FAIRtax.  It’s an investment in your and your family’s future.