Filling US Tax Returns This Year To Take 8.9bn Hours

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

14 April 2016

The American Action Forum (AAF) has pointed out that, by the April 18 deadline, US individuals and pass-through businesses, whose profits are passed directly to their owners, will have spent a record amount of time and resources in submitting their tax returns, according to the Administration's own estimates.

After a slight decrease from the 2014 to 2015 filing seasons (7.7bn to 7.3bn), the overall tally of paperwork burden hours increased sharply in 2016 to 8.9bn hours, at a total cost to taxpayers of almost USD1.8 trillion. "To put that in perspective," the AAF said, "it would take 4.4m Americans, working 2,000 hours annually to complete the Internal Revenue Services's (IRS's) paperwork. That's roughly the population of Kentucky."

It was indicated that the primary reason for this increase in hours has been an adjustment to business income tax compliance. In addition to the normal business and individual income tax returns, time-consuming IRS requirements include the Income Tax Return for an S Corporation, Form 4562 – Depreciation and Amortization, the Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return, the Income Tax Return for Estates and Trusts, and the Employer's Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return.

The AAF concluded that, as the time taken, the expense of compliance, and the number of forms for taxpayers all rise, "fundamental tax reform might be difficult, but compared to the status quo, anything is easier."

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