A List Of 97 Taxes Americans Pay Every YearMichael Snyder As you will see below, there are dozens of other taxes that Americans pay every year. Of course not everyone pays all of these taxes, but without a doubt we are all being taxed into oblivion. It is like death by a thousand paper cuts. Our politicians have become extremely creative in finding ways to extract money from all of us, and most Americans dont even realize what is being done to them. By the time it is all said and done, a significant portion of the population ends up paying more than half of what they earn to the government. That is fundamentally wrong, but nothing will be done about it until people start demanding change. The following is a list of 97 taxes Americans pay every year #1 Air Transportation Taxes (just look at how much you were charged the last time you flew) #32 Import Taxes Yet despite all of this oppressive taxation, our local governments, our state governments and our federal government are all absolutely drowning in debt. When the federal income tax was originally introduced a little more than 100 years ago, most Americans were taxed at a rate of only 1 percent. But once they get their feet in the door, the social planners always want more. Since that time, tax rates have gone much higher and the tax code has exploded in size. Why do we have to have the most convoluted tax system in the history of the planet? Why cant things be simpler? In a previous article entitled 24 Outrageous Facts About Taxes In The United States That Will Blow Your Mind, I listed a number of reasons why our federal income tax system has become a complete and utter abomination that is entirely out of control 1 The U.S. tax code is now 3.8 million words long. If you took all of William Shakespeares works and collected them together, the entire collection would only be about 900,000 words long. 2 According to the National Taxpayers Union, U.S. taxpayers spend more than 7.6 billion hours complying with federal tax requirements. Imagine what our society would look like if all that time was spent on more economically profitable activities. 3 75 years ago, the instructions for Form 1040 were two pages long. Today, they are 189 pages long. 4 There have been 4,428 changes to the tax code over the last decade. It is incredibly costly to change tax software, tax manuals and tax instruction booklets for all of those changes. 5 According to the National Taxpayers Union, the IRS currently has 1,999 different publications, forms, and instruction sheets that you can download from the IRS website. 6 Our tax system has become so complicated that it is almost impossible to file your taxes correctly. For example, back in 1998 Money Magazine had 46 different tax professionals complete a tax return for a hypothetical household. All 46 of them came up with a different result. 7 In 2009, PC World had five of the most popular tax preparation software websites prepare a tax return for a hypothetical household. All five of them came up with a different result. 8 The IRS spends $2.45 for every $100 that it collects in taxes. 9 According to The Tax Foundation, the average American has to work until April 17th just to pay federal, state, and local taxes. Back in 1900, Tax Freedom Day came on January 22nd. 10 When the U.S. government first implemented a personal income tax back in 1913, the vast majority of the population paid a rate of just 1 percent, and the highest marginal tax rate was just 7 percent. If it was up to me, I would abolish the income tax and shut the IRS down. But neither major political party in the United States is even willing to consider such a thing. So the monstrous system that we have created will continue to get even bigger and even more complicated. We are literally being taxed into oblivion, and most Americans dont even seem to care. This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. 