It's April 15.
The line at my local post office was longer than usual.
Millions of Americans are scrambling today to pay their taxes.
Americans spent more than 24 hours and $200 for the privilege of sending a good portion of their hard-income to the government.
That's how screwed up our tax system is.
Not only does the government take too much of our money, but it makes us jump through hoops of fire to turn the money over.
And this is just for personal income taxes. If you're in business, you spent a combined $170 billion to comply with the U.S. tax code, according to The Associated Press.
IRS figures showed that all taxpayers, from those using the simplest 1040-EZ form to those using longer forms, spent 26.5 hours in record keeping, studying the law, and preparing and sending their forms for the 2006 tax year, the AP says. That was up from 25.4 hours three years earlier.
The average out-of-pocket cost, including for those taxpayers doing their own taxes, was $207, up from $185 three years earlier, according to the AP. The self-employed taxpayer paid an average $444 to put his taxes together.
The bottom line? Most of the refund you will get from the government has already been eaten up by the expense of getting your tax returns ready.
There's got to be a better way. Check out this post, "Not Free Yet" at Investors' Business Daily.
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