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  "path": "/opinion/2026/04/14/income-taxes-wont-get-simpler-any-time-soon/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-15T03:05:44.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.deseret.com",
  "tags": [
    "Tax day is approaching: Here’s what to know",
    "about $1.7 trillion",
    "being a senior citizen",
    "tips or overtime",
    "National Taxpayers Union Foundation",
    "Opinion: This tax season, ask where your money is going",
    "Tax Policy Center notes",
    "Opinion: What it would take to keep debt from eating America alive",
    "commissioned a poll",
    "opinions of economists",
    "White House releases 2026 economic report detailing key Trump policies"
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  "textContent": "This is the week each year when Americans have what likely is their closest contact with the federal government, through the filing of income taxes. Whether you file early or at the mid-April deadline, the process may leave you wondering at its complexity.\n\nYou may envy the people of Estonia, who receive an annual tax form from their government already filled in. If they find an error, they can appeal. Otherwise, they sign the form and go on with their everyday lives.\n\nNot in this country.\n\nGiven a blank slate on which to design an income tax system from scratch, it’s doubtful any American would invent something that — depending on the chosen font and type size — fills about 6,000 pages and requires an attorney or highly compensated tax expert to understand.\n\nBut the U.S. system wasn’t invented. It evolved, little by little, and in ways that make reform extremely difficult.\n\nTax day is approaching: Here’s what to know\n\nThe American income tax system serves two purposes. One is to collect revenue the federal government needs in order to pay expenses. At this, it largely fails, year after year. The current annual budget deficit is about $1.7 trillion, meaning the government spends that much above what it collects.\n\nThe accumulative total of past deficits adds to a national debt that is expected to pass $40 trillion this year, requiring the government to pay interest of well over $1 trillion.\n\nThe second purpose of the income tax code is to incentivize Americans to engage in virtuous behavior. These often take the form of deductions or tax credits, and they have evolved over time.\n\nTaxpayers receive breaks for contributing to charity, buying a house with a mortgage and having children. At various times, they have received breaks for installing solar power or for buying electric cars. This year, people can receive automatic deductions simply for being a senior citizen. Some employees this year may avoid taxes on wages classified as tips or overtime.\n\nThe rules are numerous and difficult to track, which is why many Americans rely on experts to help prepare their returns.\n\nThe National Taxpayers Union Foundation calculated last year that American taxpayers will spend about 7.1 billion hours collectively filling out tax forms. They will pay $148 billion out of pocket for everything from tax preparation software to professional help. The equivalent in lost productivity for all this is $316 billion.\n\nOpinion: This tax season, ask where your money is going\n\nEvery time Congress tinkers with the code, no matter how much they try to make it fairer or more equitable, it gets more complicated.\n\nAs the Tax Policy Center notes, the reasons are as diverse as everyday Americans.\n\n“Most people believe taxes should be fair, conducive to economic prosperity, and enforceable, as well as simple,” the center’s website notes. “But even people who agree on these goals often disagree about the relative importance of each. As a result, policies usually represent a balance among competing goals, and simplicity often loses out to other priorities.”\n\nAs a result, tax rates differ between married and single people, and vary for the number of dependents. Businesses are taxed differently depending on how they are structured.\n\n“The result of this process is a set of very complex provisions that appear to have no overall logic if the tax law were being designed from scratch,” the center said.\n\nWhile the nation’s evolving tax structure may rely, generously speaking, on a series of altruistic motives, the result is a system most Americans don’t understand and don’t like.\n\nOpinion: What it would take to keep debt from eating America alive\n\nTwo years ago, the Tax Foundation and the Center for Federal Tax Policy commissioned a poll from Public Policy Polling that found more than 80% of Americans think the tax code should be reformed, while 65% consider the code to be unfair and more than half said income taxes are too high.\n\nAdd to this the opinions of economists at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development who believe individual and corporate income taxes — the bedrock foundation of the U.S. tax system — are the taxes most likely to harm economic growth, and the need for change seems apparent.\n\nApparent, and incredibly hard.\n\nEach deduction comes with its own interest groups and lobbies prepared to fight to preserve the status quo. Each benefits a portion of the population that would be resistant to change. Each program has a clientele.\n\nWe hope these obstacles can be overcome soon, before market forces have their way.\n\nAs the national debt continues to grow, circumstances are likely to change. Investors may lose confidence. Interest rates and inflation may rise.\n\nUnfortunately, there is little evidence today to suggest Congress wants to tackle tax simplification. That’s not comforting information to ponder in the middle of April.\n\nWhite House releases 2026 economic report detailing key Trump policies",
  "title": "Opinion: Dislike filing taxes? Don’t expect things to get any easier"
}