Some Interesting Tax Facts

For Americans, this time of year means taxes. I haven’t done mine yet and  I really, really need to.  So as I try to inspire myself to get these done this week, I bring you some interesting tax facts for this weeks the UN-digi.   Enjoy…and then get those taxes done!

• The Gettysburg address is 269 words, the Declaration of Independence is 1,337 words, and the Holy Bible is only 773,000 words.  However, the tax law has grown from 11,400 words in 1913 to over 7 million words today

• The IRS sends out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions each year. Laid end to end, they would stretch 28 times around the earth.

• Nearly 300,000 trees are cut down yearly to produce the paper for all the IRS forms and instructions.

• The Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1781, did not have a nationwide tax system. Instead, it relied on donations from the states. This did not work.

• In 1916 Congress deleted the word “lawful” before the word “income” making illegal income taxable.

• The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 brought the top tax bracket down to 50%. Previously, it had been as high as 94%.

• April 15 is officially tax day, but it is also: Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday, the day Abraham Lincoln died, the day General Electric was incorporated, the day the Titanic sank and the day that McDonald’s served its first hamburger.

• Residents of Hawaii pay more state taxes a person than those of any other state, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, followed by, in order, Wyoming, Connecticut, Minnesota and Delaware. Those who pay the least a person are Alabama, New Hampshire, Colorado, South Dakota and Texas.

If you want some interesting UK tax facts, see THIS site

And just for your information, all electronic filing is free this year.  See article HERE.

And if you made $30,000 or less OR were active military in 2008 with an AGI of $56,000 or less OR quality for the Earned Income Credit, you can prepare and eFile your federal tax returns for free.  See HERE.

P.S.  Make sure you check out Designer Digitals quarterly sale.  Everything is 30% off.  I don’t shop there very often due to paypal not being an easy option, but I do plan to grab a few things this weekend.