The IRS publishes an estimate of how much time Americans spend on their tax returns. It defines the burden as “the time and money taxpayers spend to comply with their tax filing responsibilities.”
In September 2024 it estimated, in preliminary figures for fiscal year 2025, that Form 1040 and related forms take 2.266 billion hours a year, or 13 hours and 6 minutes per filer. It put the total burden, in time and money, at $92.4 billion.