Andrew Parrott for Congress

Why should I vote Libertarian? If you value individual liberty, economic freedom and limited government you should vote Libertarian. If you like free market solutions and low taxes you should vote Libertarian. Do you want all of your rights protected all of the time? Vote Libertarian. Do you want to fix the problems we have at ho...

If you think USAID is wasteful, wait until you find out about tax compliance costs! The compliance cost for income and corporate taxes in the United States for 2024 is significant. According to information on the web, Americans are expected to spend more than 7.9 billion hours complying with IRS tax filing and reporting requirements in 2024. This translates into an aggregate compliance cost estimated at around $546 billion. This cost breaks down into:

Time Burden: The IRS estimates that taxpayers will spend approximately 7.9 billion hours on tax compliance, with individual income tax forms accounting for over 2.2 billion hours, and corporate income tax returns contributing to nearly 1.1 billion hours of this total.
Financial Burden: The total includes both the opportunity cost of the time spent (valued at an estimated $413 billion when multiplying hours by average hourly compensation) and out-of-pocket costs (approximately $133 billion).

This high compliance cost is discussed in various contexts, including the complexity of the tax code, which has grown over the years, and the impact of recent tax legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act on these costs.

For a detailed breakdown, sources such as the Tax Foundation provide insights into how these costs are calculated and what they mean for the economy, highlighting that compliance costs are not just financial but also represent a significant time investment by taxpayers.