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Taxpayers to spend $477B on tax season

Posted by speckx |2 hours ago |1 comments

zahlman 2 hours ago

> The National Taxpayers Union Foundation released a report with estimates on how much time and money Americans are expected to spend.

They have their own website (https://www.ntu.org/foundation/), so why not cite it directly?

> The report estimated the average American will spend 12 hours and $290 to complete their tax return.

> The report estimates that tax compliance costs include $319.7 billion in lost time and at least $157.1 billion in out-of-pocket expenses, including tax software and professional services.

Even taking the claims for granted (that seems like an awful lot to spend on tax software, and if you're hiring a professional then there shouldn't be a huge burden on your time), that works out to 541.7 million Americans whose time is valued at an average of $49.18 an hour.

I... don't think these are reliable numbers.