Tax Advocate on Tax Filings

The Tax Advocate is on the side of tax reform and simplification. The national taxpayer advocate Nina Olson said that the code must be simplified. In her report to Congress her office stated that IRS data shows that individuals and businesses spent about 6 billion hours yearly complying with the tax code’s filing requirements, not including millions of additional hours spent responding to IRS audits or notices. The report says: “If tax compliance were an industry it would be one of the largest in the United States” To consume 6 billion hours the tax industry requires the equivalent of 3 million full-time workers, so says the report.. The current tax code contains more than 200 tax deductions credits, exclusions and similar tax allowances, if all tallied they amount to $1.42 trillion that’s more than Congress pays to run the entire federal government. Olson also requested that IRS change its culture from one that is enforcement oriented, to one that is service oriented and naturally she recommends that Congress give additional funding to the IRS to meet taxpayer needs. Not likely....