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05 Jan 2011 21:00

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U.S.: Tax watchdog: Taxes too complicated, take too much time

  • United States Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson says something has to change. Olson, who makes a yearly report on the collective state of tax compliance, says we spend too much time paying our taxes, and the process is way too overwhelming. “There has been near universal agreement for years that the tax code is broken and needs to be fixed,” she says. “Yet no broad-based attempt to reform the tax code has been made.” Some of her findings:
  • 6.1B the number of hours it takes for businesses to comply with tax-filing requirements
  • 3M the number of workers Olson estimates are needed to ensure everyone tax compliance
  • 550% the increase in liens the IRS has filed against taxpayers over the last five years source

02 Jan 2011 12:05

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U.S.: Dear early-bird tax filers: The IRS isn’t ready for you guys yet

  • good Obama got the tax compromise through late last month, even if it didn’t have absolutely everything he wanted in it. There’s no more uncertainty, which is good.
  • bad As a side effect of it coming so late in the year, the IRS can’t take as many as 50 million itemized tax forms until late February, due to tax code changes. Sorry, guys. source