Unpaid Tax Per Household: $2,680

Contributed by mm | March 5, 2007 5:01 AM PST

Isn't it a surprisingly high number? It is estimated that the tax gap, or the difference between what taxpayers owe and what they pay, is $300 billion, or $2,680 per household now.

But is there any quick fix? Our tax system is too complicated to allow effective enforcement. There is probably no way we can close this gap.

From MSBNC:

Think of the uses of $300 billion, the annual gap between what taxpayers owe and what they pay.

It would more than cover the federal deficit for a year or the extra money President Bush wants in 2007 and 2008 for Iraq and Afghanistan.

It would pay for the $125 billion that Congress has agreed to spend on Hurricane Katrina relief, with enough left for three years worth of federal education programs.

Such are the dreams of lawmakers pressing the Internal Revenue Service to get more aggressive about reducing what is known throughout Washington as "the tax gap."

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