Quick Facts on the Tax Code

(1) Over 100 million individual income tax returns are filed annually on behalf of roughly 90 percent of the U.S. population;

(2) The Internal Revenue Code consists of approximately 1,395,000 words;

(3) There are 693 sections of the Internal Revenue Code that are applicable to individual taxpayers, 1,501 sections applicable to businesses, and 445 sections applicable to tax-exempt organizations, employee plans, and governments;

(4) As of June 2000, the Treasury Department had issued almost 20,000 pages of regulations containing over 8 million words;

(5) During 2000, the IRS published guidance for taxpayers in the form of 58 revenue rulings, 49 revenue procedures, 64 notices, 100 announcements, at least 2,400 private letter rulings and technical advice memoranda, 10 actions on decision, and 240 field service advice;

(6) For 1999, publications of the IRS included 649 forms, schedules, and separate instructions totaling more than 16,000 lines, 159 worksheets contained in IRS instructions to forms, and approximately 340 publications totaling more than 13,000 pages;

(7) A taxpayer filing an individual income tax return could be faced with a return (Form 1040) with 79 lines, 144 pages of instructions, 11 schedules totaling 443 lines (including instructions), 19 separate worksheets embedded in the instructions, and the possibility of filing numerous other forms (IRS Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax (273 pages), lists 18 commonly used forms other than Form 1040 and its schedules);

(8) In 1997, of the more than 122 million individual income tax returns filed, nearly 69 million were filed on Form 1040, as opposed to Form 1040A, Form 1040EZ, or Form 1040PC;

(9) In 1999, taxpayers contacted the IRS for assistance approximately 117 million
times, up from 105 million contacts in 1996; and

(10) The use of paid return preparers increased from 48 percent of returns filed in 1990 to 55 percent of returns filed in 1999 (a 27 percent increase) and the use of computer software for return preparation increased from 16 percent of returns filed in 1990 to 46 percent of returns filed in 1999 (a 188 percent increase).

SIMPLIFICATION STUDY

The JCT’s 3-volume “Study Of The Overall State Of The Federal Tax System And Recommendations For Simplification,” published in April, 2001, is available through the following links:

VOLUME I: Study Of The Overall State Of The Federal Tax System;

VOLUME II: Recommendations Of The Staff Of The Joint Committee On Taxation To Simplify The Federal Tax System;

VOLUME III: Academic Papers Submitted To The Joint Committee On Taxation