much more. in 2010, America spent about $431 Billion in compliance costs - most of it trying to figure out and then minimize our exposure to the tax code. $431 Bn is roughly the entire economy of Taiwan. It is enough to fight Iraq, Afghanistan, and fund the Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, Department of Energy, and NASA.
that's why Right, Left, and Center, everyone agrees that we need to simplify the tax code. doing so in an effective rate neutral manner would squeeze those billions back into production, where they would create massive amounts of wealth and jobs. even if we only reduced complexity by half, it's estimated that that alone would be worth half a point of GDP added each year, compounding.