William Byrnes' Tax, Wealth, and Risk Intelligence

Last month the National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson released her annual report to Congress, identifying the need for tax reform as the number one priority in tax administration.  The report also examines challenges the IRS is facing in implementing the new health care law.  Below is a highlight of some points made in the report: [1]

Tax Reform

“There has been near universal agreement for years that the tax code is broken and needs to be fixed,” Olson said in releasing the report.  “Yet no broad-based attempt to reform the tax code has been made.  This report documents the burdens the tax code imposes on taxpayers and explores why many taxpayers may nevertheless feel wedded to key aspects of the current system, undermining efforts at reform.”

Analysis of IRS data shows that taxpayers and businesses spend 6.1 billion hours a year complying with tax-filing requirements.  “If tax compliance were an industry, it would be one of the largest in the United States,” the report says.  “To consume 6.1 billion hours, the ‘tax industry’ requires the equivalent of more than three million full-time workers.”

Read the analysis at AdvisorFYI