The time, m o n ey, and aggr ava t i o n
that tens of millions of A m e ricans expend to
understand and comply with the income tax is, it
turns out, nothing new. In his 1776 The Wealth of
Nations, Adam Smith noted that “subjecting the
people to the frequent visits and the odious examination
of the tax gatherers…may expose them to
much unnecessary trouble, vexation, and oppression:
and though vexation is not, strictly speaking,
expence, it is certainly equivalent to expence at
which every man would be willing to redeem
himself from it.” For A m e r icans today, t h e
“expence” includes maintaining records, learning
the law, preparing the return or hiring a preparer,
corresponding with the IRS, and learning how to
reduce (or cheat on) taxes.