With Americans rushing to file their income tax returns by April 18, here’s a rundown of income tax “fun” facts:
8.9 billion
Combined, the number of hours the country spends dealing with IRS red tape.
$987 billion
Upper estimate on the annual accounting and economic costs involved in tax filing, according to the Mercatus Center. The lower estimate is $215 billion a year.
19.6 percent
Effective federal income tax rate paid by the Obamas on their 2014 return. The first family reported an adjusted gross income of $477,383, paying $93,362 in tax, and donating $70,712 to charities. The Bidens paid an effective income tax rate of 23.3 percent on their return.
35 cents
The cost for the IRS to collect $100 in federal revenue, according to WalletHub.
29 percent
Average federal individual income tax rate paid by the top 1 percent of income-earners, whose average after-tax income is $1,031,900 a year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Thanks to refundable tax credits, the bottom fifth of income-earners “pay” a negative rate of -7.5 percent on average, on an average after-tax income of $24,100 per year.
27 percent
About 27 percent of Americans would get an IRS tattoo … if it meant not having to pay taxes again for the rest of their life. (Only 27 percent?)
35.4 percent
Share of total federal income tax revenue paid by the top 1 percent of income-earners — more than the bottom 90 percent of income-earning households combined.
47 percent
Portion of total federal revenue that comes from income taxes. Payroll taxes are the next largest source, at 33 percent.
74,608
Number of pages in the federal tax code in 2014, 187 times the number of pages in 1913.
2050
Year the federal tax code will reach 100,000 pages in length if it continues to add 734 pages per year on average, as it did from 1913 to 2014.
100 million
Number of telephone calls the IRS gets every year, asking for help with tax filing needs. On top of that, it receives 10 million letters and 5 million on-site visits.
30.5 minutes
Average wait time when calling the IRS in 2015. Almost two-thirds of those calls went unanswered.
$11.2 billion
Appropriations given to the IRS in FY 2016. For its 83,105 employees, that comes out to about $135,000 spent per employee.
3
Number of developed countries (South Korea, Chile, Mexico) that collect less in taxes than the United States at all levels of government combined. Taxes are one-quarter of GDP in the U.S., compared to one-fifth of GDP in Mexico. On the other end, Denmark collects almost half of its GDP in taxes.
27.5 hours
Average number of hours spent preparing an individual income tax return. Ever wonder what you could do with all that time?
0.8 percent
Odds you will be audited by the IRS. So relax.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
