Administrative Burden

If you ask the typical person on April 15 for an opinion about the tax system you might hear about the headache of filling out tax forms. The administrative burden of any tax system is part of the inefficiency it creates. This burden includes not only the time spent in early April filling out forms but also the time spent throughout the year keeping records for tax purposes and the resources the government has to use to enforce the tax laws. 

Many taxpayers especially those in higher tax brackets hire tax lawyers and accountants to help them with their taxes. These experts in the complex tax laws fill out the tax forms for their clients and help clients arrange their affairs in a way that reduces the amount of taxes owed. This behavior is legal tax avoidance which is different from illegal tax evasion. 

Critics of our tax system say that these advisers help their clients avoid taxes by abusing some of the detailed provisions of the tax code often dubbed loopholes. In some cases loopholes are congressional mistakes. They arise from ambiguities or omissions in the tax laws. More often they arise because Congress has chosen to give special treatment to specific types of behavior. For example the U.S federal tax code gives preferential treatment to investors in municipal bonds because Congress wanted to make it easier for state and local government to borrow money.