Tax System Burden: Tax Compliance Burden Faced by Business Taxpayers
Highlights
GAO discussed taxpayer compliance burden, focusing on the sources of compliance burden for business taxpayers and the reliability of burden cost estimates. GAO noted that: (1) the complexity of the Internal Revenue Code, compounded by the changes made to the code, is the driving force behind federal tax compliance burden; (2) a reliable estimate of the overall costs of tax compliance is not currently available and would be costly and burdensome on businesses to obtain; (3) reducing compliance burden will be difficult because of the various policy tradeoffs, such as revenue and taxpayer equity, that must be made; and (4) while business officials and tax experts acknowledge the legitimate purposes of the federal tax system, they believe several code provisions are problematic and need simplification.