--- title: Here's How Much Time and Money America Spends Doing Taxes Every Year description: It's no surprise that filing taxes can be time-consuming. But the total amount of time and money Americans spend still may shock you. authors: - name: Pete Grieve role: Lead News Reporter url: https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/ bio: Pete Grieve is a personal finance reporter. In his time at Money, Pete has covered everything from car buying to credit cards to the housing market. education: University of Chicago, BA Political Science at_money_since: 2022 articles: 597 covers: - Taxes - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping social: - https://twitter.com/pete_grieve - https://linkedin.com/in/pete-grieve-b5aa02138 - https://www.facebook.com/petegrieve4 editors: - name: Kaitlin Mulhere role: Editor url: https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/ bio: Kaitlin Mulhere is an editor at Money.com. Since joining in 2015, she’s written and edited about a variety of personal finance topics, including banks, credit, student debt, saving strategies and more. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2015 articles: 217 covers: - Taxes - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping social: - https://twitter.com/KMulhere - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlin-mulhere-64503048/ published: '2024-08-08T13:00:46.000Z' section: Taxes tags: - News word_count: 435 canonical: https://money.com/filing-taxes-time-money-burden/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Photo illustration of a person spending a lot of time doing taxes](https://img.money.com/2024/08/News-time-America-spends-doing-taxes.jpg?crop=0px%2C149px%2C2880px%2C1617px&quality=85) Filing taxes can be complex and time-consuming, and when you add up all the hours Americans spend to comply with the tax code, it’s an astonishing sum. Taxpayers will spend a total of over 7.9 billion hours on tax filing and compliance-related activities this year, according to an analysis of government data by the [Tax Foundation](https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/irs-tax-compliance-costs/). The nonprofit research group says the country’s “Byzantine tax code” results in a tremendous amount of wasted time. The cost of all that drained time adds up to $413 billion, according to the foundation’s calculations, which assume that an hour of an individual’s time costs $44.50. Despite many efforts over the years to make the [tax filing process more efficient](https://money.com/irs-plan-tax-changes-80-billion-funding/), including recent initiatives like the [IRS simplifying dozens of taxpayer notices](https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-launches-simple-notice-initiative-redesign-effort) and ensuring those notices are readable at a 5th-grade comprehension level, the Tax Foundation says the amount of time Americans spend doing taxes is still "shocking." Americans are also burdened by the direct costs of doing taxes, including fees for [online tax preparation services](https://money.com/best-tax-prep-software/) or payments to tax professionals. These out-of-pocket costs add up to $133 billion per year, according to the Tax Foundation. Altogether, that means America's complex tax code costs the country $546 billion. ## The right Tax Relief firm makes all the difference, especially if you owe over $10,000 in taxes. ### Get the tailored experience that you expect from the tax litigation professionals in your area. Click on your state to get started! [Get Started](https://money.com/pr/kc0833a52be9?ap_referrer=%2Ffiling-taxes-time-money-burden%2F) ## Americans spend billions of hours filing taxes Individual income tax return filing is the most time-consuming element of the tax system, with the average taxpayer spending 13 hours to comply with the Form 1040. For individuals with business income, the average amount of time it takes to file taxes is even higher: 24 hours. The estimates of how much time Americans spend doing taxes are based on surveys of individuals and businesses, as well as modeling and administrative Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data. This data is available thanks to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980, which mandates that the IRS calculate the burden for Americans to complete federal tax forms. This “taxpayer compliance burden” includes various activities that eat up time. It’s not just the filing of over 270 million tax returns, but also “record keeping, tax planning, gathering tax materials \[and\] learning about the law." Overall, it reportedly takes Americans 12 billion hours annually to comply with federal government paperwork. Two-thirds of that time is spent on tax-related paperwork. The IRS hopes to streamline tax processes for Americans by increasing what you can do online and continuing to improve the efficiency of tax messaging, according to a [government report](https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/OIRA-2024-Burden-Reduction-Report.pdf). ## If you owe more than $10,000 in taxes, Tax Relief can allow you to break down your debt into payments ### Anthem Tax Relief provides a full menu of tax relief services to help clients get out from under the yoke of tax debt. [Get Started](https://money.com/pr/u8c9d1d14e7a?ap_referrer=%2Ffiling-taxes-time-money-burden%2F) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/filing-taxes-time-money-burden/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Taxes", "item": "https://money.com/taxes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Tax Returns", "item": "https://money.com/tax-returns/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Here's How Much Time and Money America Spends Doing Taxes Every Year" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/filing-taxes-time-money-burden/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/filing-taxes-time-money-burden/", "name": "Here's How Much Time and Money America Spends Doing Taxes Every Year", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2024-08-08T13:00:46.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/filing-taxes-time-money-burden/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/filing-taxes-time-money-burden/#breadcrumb" } }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Here's How Much Time and Money America Spends Doing Taxes Every Year", "articleSection": "Taxes", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2024/08/News-time-America-spends-doing-taxes.jpg?crop=0px%2C149px%2C2880px%2C1617px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "News-time-America-spends-doing-taxes" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Pete Grieve", "url": "https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/#author", "description": "Pete Grieve is a personal finance reporter. 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