Fun Facts About Your Income Taxes

January 26, 2010

Uncle Sam By John Newcomer:

By now you are starting to get those 1099i’s in the mail. Yes, those pesky, little forms that let you know you earned a whopping $12.92 interest on your meager savings account. Just as daffodils signal that Spring is around the corner; your soon to arrive 2009 W-2 means that tax return preparation season is almost upon us.

How complicated is the U.S. Tax code? The first tax code (1913) was 400 pages. It is now 70,320 pages long! If you placed the pages end to end, the code is more than a 13 mile journey. It is so complicated that more than 60% of all filers have to use the services of professional tax preparers to fill out their return.

How about this for Irony?

Back in 1952, when the tax code was a mere 20,000 pages, Joseph Nunan was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Joseph Nunan’s previous job was Commissioner of the IRS! If he could not figure out the income tax code, then what chance does the average citizen have?

Really, come on? 70,000 pages!!!