Press Release

Americans Spend $33.6 Billion to Comply With IRS Regulations, AAF Research Finds

On tax day, the American Action Forum (@AAF) analyzed the burden of the nation’s broken tax code for individuals. The AAF research finds the individual income tax generates 200 forms, requires Americans to spend 2.6 billion hours filling out these forms, and costs $33.6 billion in compliance spending. These figures are staggering for the 150 million Americans who file taxes.

The AAF research also found:

  • IRS regulations impose 7.3 billion in paperwork burden hours on individuals and businesses;
  • $181.9 billion is spent by individuals and businesses to comply with regulations;
  • 72.5 million paperwork burden hours were added by the Affordable Care Act; and
  • The individual tax code is the largest paperwork burden imposed by the IRS.


Click here to read the research. 

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