Tax Season and You
Tuesday, 06 April 2010 16:03 | Written by Mercy Otis Warren | 
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Via Mike Sabot
Completed your tax return this year or are you still working on it?
For a more exhaustive list try:
or
The increases will affect every American, even if you don't currently pay federal taxes.
The only things certain in life are death and taxes. If you have anything to leave for you children or grandchildren, 2010 is the best year to die. The death tax is 0 this year. While Pelosi is trying to portray the death tax next year at 45% a tax decrease, looks to me like a tax increase from this year.
Just remember in November, our Congressman Sanford Bishop voted for every one of those increases.
Here are some facts to think about while doing your taxes; read the complete list at: RSC
TAX FACTS
April 2010
- According to the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), in fiscal year 2009, the IRS estimated that individual and business taxpayers spent 7.75 billion hours complying with the tax laws. That is the equivalent of 3.7 million employees working 40-hour weeks year-round without any vacation.
- The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) estimates that, in 2009, individual taxpayers spent 3.8 billion hours complying with the federal income tax laws. Using the most recently reported average employer cost for civilian workers by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of $29.18 per hour, this time is worth an incredible $110.6 billion.
- The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reported that individuals spent an estimated $29.33 billion in 2009 for tax software, tax preparers, postage, and other out-of-pocket costs related to filing their federal income tax—that is almost twice the size of Honduras’s economy.
- The IRS’s National Taxpayer Advocate estimates that taxpayers spend $193 billion each year to comply with income tax requirements. This amounts to 14% of aggregate income tax receipts.
- According to the IRS, the form 1040 in the year 1935 was accompanied by a two-page instruction booklet. The corresponding instruction booklet for 2007 was 155 pages. Today's short form, at 48 lines, has double the number of lines on the 1945 version of the standard 1040 tax return.
- According to NTU, the IRS now lists more than 1,700 publications, forms, and instructions on its website.
- NTU estimates that the cost for federal tax compliance by corporations is $159.4 billion, which is 54% of the corporate income taxes collected in fiscal year 2008.
- 62.8% of tax filers used paid preparers in 2006—up from 38.0% in 1980.
- The IRS was appropriated $11.6 billion in FY 2010. To put this figure in perspective, it is more than the amount Congress appropriated for missile defense programs.
- In January 2008, the IRS had an annual payroll of nearly a half-a-billion dollars and employed more than 100,000 people—more than the combined number of employees (as of January 2008) at the Departments of State, Labor, Energy, Housing & Urban Development, and Education, along with the Census Bureau.
- According to NTU, the IRS “accounts for nearly 80 percent of the federal government’s entire paperwork load imposed on citizens.”
Working for the Taxman:
- This year, 100% of the income the average American earns from January 1st to April 8th (99 days) will go to pay federal, state, and local taxes in 2010, according to the Tax Foundation. Therefore, April 9th will be “Tax Freedom Day,” the day on which the
- average American will start working for anything besides taxes.
- Tax Freedom Day in 1910 was January 19th, when taxes were just 5% of a person’s income. Now, as the Tax Foundation points out, Tax Freedom Day is nearly three months later (or later in some states), and taxes are more than 26% of a person’s income.
- Americans still spend more time working to pay taxes to all levels of government than they spend working to pay to put food on their tables, provide housing, and buy clothing combined.
Think You Have Paid Your Taxes for the Year? Think Again!
- Just because you’ve filed your federal income tax return, don’t think you’re done paying federal taxes this year. Throughout the rest of the year, you will continue paying morefederal taxes every time you fly on an airplane, make a phone call, or fill up your gas tank. These taxes are just the tip of the tax iceberg.
- Since the federal government taxes corporations, they are forced to factor these costs into the prices of the products and services they sell. Corporate income taxes cost families over $3,190 a year in increased prices, according to the Tax Foundation. The U.S. corporate tax rate is the second highest of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations (exceeded only by Japan).
Last Updated (Monday, 12 April 2010 14:03)
