red states rule
Senior Member
- May 30, 2006
- 16,011
- 573
- 48
Today is the day Dems live for. When the producers of the nation fork over a hell of chunk of their income to the government
Nation scrambles to file tax returns
System gets more complicated
By JIM ABRAMS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The deadline is upon us, and people across the country are finishing up about 3.18 billion hours figuring out and filing their tax returns.
That's 24.2 hours per taxpayer.
If it's any consolation, most people get a two-day reprieve this year, until midnight tonight. April 15 fell on a Sunday and April 16 was Emancipation Day, a legal holiday in the District of Columbia. People directly affected by the storm that hit the Northeast on Monday were awarded two more days, through Thursday, to get their returns in.
Some people need all the time they can get to cope with a system that every year, with changes in tax law, becomes more complicated.
The National Taxpayers Union, an advocacy group, came up with its estimate of 3.18 billion hours -- for individual compliance based on an IRS report on forms submitted. The group did not have an estimate for past years, but the Tax Foundation, using similar means of calculation, said the figure for the previous year was 2.8 billion hours.
The figures are much higher if you count businesses such as General Electric Co., which may have set a record last year by filing a return that, had it been printed on paper, would have totaled more than 24,000 pages.
The taxpayers union calculated that the average taxpayer spent 24.2 hours in record keeping, boning up on tax law and preparing his or her 2006 returns. With about 60 percent of people now using paid preparers, the group said the average cost of paying taxes is $207.
Corporations spent about $156.5 billion working on their taxes, nearly half the $354 billion in corporate income taxes the U.S. collected last year, NTU said.
"This spring you have people spending more on tax preparation than our government is spending on higher education," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who is sponsoring a tax-simplification bill with a one-page 1040 form for most taxpayers. "It shouldn't have to be bureaucratic water torture to fill out all these forms."
Despite the obstacles, most Americans make an honest effort to pay their taxes on time. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark Everson said the agency expects to process 136 million returns this year. As of April 7, it had received 88.1 million. For most the effort is rewarded: As of April 7 the IRS had issued 73.6 million refunds totaling $174 billion. The average refund was $2,366.
So far, the IRS said, 61 million returns had been filed electronically, up 6.2 percent from last year. Of those, 44 million came from tax professionals and 17 million from people using software on their home computers. The agency said its Web site -- irs.gov -- had received 111 million visits from people seeking help or information.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/311868_taxtime17.html
Nation scrambles to file tax returns
System gets more complicated
By JIM ABRAMS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The deadline is upon us, and people across the country are finishing up about 3.18 billion hours figuring out and filing their tax returns.
That's 24.2 hours per taxpayer.
If it's any consolation, most people get a two-day reprieve this year, until midnight tonight. April 15 fell on a Sunday and April 16 was Emancipation Day, a legal holiday in the District of Columbia. People directly affected by the storm that hit the Northeast on Monday were awarded two more days, through Thursday, to get their returns in.
Some people need all the time they can get to cope with a system that every year, with changes in tax law, becomes more complicated.
The National Taxpayers Union, an advocacy group, came up with its estimate of 3.18 billion hours -- for individual compliance based on an IRS report on forms submitted. The group did not have an estimate for past years, but the Tax Foundation, using similar means of calculation, said the figure for the previous year was 2.8 billion hours.
The figures are much higher if you count businesses such as General Electric Co., which may have set a record last year by filing a return that, had it been printed on paper, would have totaled more than 24,000 pages.
The taxpayers union calculated that the average taxpayer spent 24.2 hours in record keeping, boning up on tax law and preparing his or her 2006 returns. With about 60 percent of people now using paid preparers, the group said the average cost of paying taxes is $207.
Corporations spent about $156.5 billion working on their taxes, nearly half the $354 billion in corporate income taxes the U.S. collected last year, NTU said.
"This spring you have people spending more on tax preparation than our government is spending on higher education," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who is sponsoring a tax-simplification bill with a one-page 1040 form for most taxpayers. "It shouldn't have to be bureaucratic water torture to fill out all these forms."
Despite the obstacles, most Americans make an honest effort to pay their taxes on time. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark Everson said the agency expects to process 136 million returns this year. As of April 7, it had received 88.1 million. For most the effort is rewarded: As of April 7 the IRS had issued 73.6 million refunds totaling $174 billion. The average refund was $2,366.
So far, the IRS said, 61 million returns had been filed electronically, up 6.2 percent from last year. Of those, 44 million came from tax professionals and 17 million from people using software on their home computers. The agency said its Web site -- irs.gov -- had received 111 million visits from people seeking help or information.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/311868_taxtime17.html
