Individual Tax Compliance and Complexity

The full cost of a tax system is more than simply the amount of tax paid. It also includes the cost of tax planning and paperwork. Economists call these “tax compliance” costs, and the IRS estimates Americans spend 6.6 billion hours per year filling out tax forms—including 1.6 billion hours on the 1040 form alone.

Featured Research

A Preliminary Look at 2018 Tax Data

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The First Filing Season under the TCJA

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Policymakers Should Learn from Tax Complexity in Brazil and the United States

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What the U.S. Can Learn from the Adoption (and Repeal) of Wealth Taxes in the OECD

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Details of the “Big Six” Tax Framework

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