Michael Burgess: “Mr. Speaker, Albert Einstein once said, ``The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.'' If we look…”

“Mr. Speaker, Albert Einstein once said, ``The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.'' If we look at today's Tax Code, it is easy to see his genius. The cost of the current income tax system in both time and dollars is just too high. Consider this: each year Americans spend 6.1 billion hours preparing their tax forms, and businesses spend 800 million hours complying with the Tax Code. In 2001 alone, Americans lost $183 billion in opportunity costs which were calculated at $30 an hour. Those are costs that people spend working on taxes instead of working on money-producing activities for themselves. Two-thirds of Americans think the income tax system is too complex. We need a simpler system for all Americans to understand. Taxpayer phone calls to the IRS help line doubled during the 1990s from 56 million to 111 million, even though the number of taxpayers only grew by 12 percent. The Federal tax rules are over 45,000 pages in length, which is double the number of pages since the 1970s, including the full Tax Code, the IRS rules and regulations, and tax court rulings. The average taxpayer spends over $1,800 per household in compliance costs. In other words, that taxpayer must work 6 days per year just to pay for the cost of preparing his or her taxes for that year.”