Design: Simplifying Income Tax Returns

The IRS may have come up with an easy-to-understand form

It is that time of the year again. Some 96 million Americans fuss, cuss and struggle with sheaves of tax forms covered by a barely penetrable typographic thicket. If the amount on line 54 of form 1040 is larger than on line 62, the citizen must pay the balance to help the Federal Government establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty. Taxes are unavoidable, but is the thicket?

The typographic tangle has proliferated since the 16th Amendment authorized the federal...

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