On the recordApril 11, 2002
Once again, Mr. Speaker, April 15, tax day, is just a weekend away; and too many Americans spend too much time and too much money preparing and paying their taxes. The estimated preparation time for an IRS 1040 form now is right at 13 hours and 27 minutes, and those unfortunate taxpayers who need to itemize their deductions will be devoting an additional 5 hours in preparing their tax forms. It is obvious, Mr. Speaker, that our Tax Code is too complex and places too great a burden on our hard-working families. Too many Americans, over 67 million filers, spend millions of dollars employing professional tax preparers just to wade through the Tax Code; and it is pretty tough to wade through 2.8 million words of our Tax Code. Even the book "War and Peace" is a quicker read at 660,000 words. Mr. Speaker, it is time to simplify our Tax Code. It is the fair solution to such a taxing problem for every American.
Source
govinfo.gov
