Some random thoughts on income taxes because it is that time of year when I must think about taxes. I have my taxes done by a professional because I hate doing them. I have a system that I have used for years and I can quickly gather and sort my expenses. (deductions)
The truth is the IRS knows exactly how much money we make and they could just send us a bill, or a refund. For businesses, we could send a report showing our business expenses, which they could subtract from our gross income before they send us a bill or a refund.
The current system is too stressful, expensive, and is too time-consuming. Taxpayers spend $104 billion annually on out-of-pocket expenses for preparing and submitting tax forms. The emotional cost is also high as people stress out over getting their tax returns filed correctly and on time.
We also spend an estimated 6.55 billion hours complying with the tax laws. There are also state income taxes to consider.
The federal tax code is incredibly complex—so complex that it covers 6,871 pages. If you add in the U.S. tax regulations, which are the U.S. Treasury’s official interpretation of the tax code, to that, you’d be up to 75,000 pages.
Mistakes are made, fines are paid and in the end, the IRS isn’t able to collect billions of dollars owed because of staffing shortages. The IRS could probably get by on fewer employees if the taxation was less complicated.
As a small business owner who isn’t wealthy, the IRS pays close attention to my tax return. They owe me $900 from 2020 when they claimed that I did not buy my health insurance through the exchange even though I provided proof that I did. My response likely got lost in the mail or is sitting in a large pile of mail waiting to be opened by an IRS worker. I’ll never see that $900. I’ll bet Trump spent it playing golf.
Our system is regressive and favors the wealthy. There is also tax fraud and scams built around the fear people have of taxes and of the IRS.
I know this is my yearly tax rant. I’ll do it again in 2026.
