The IRS estimates the average taxpayer spends 12 hours working on their taxes and pays an average of $230 to get their paperwork filed.

"Your tax return is in no way that simple," Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Chief Tax Information Officer Mark Steber said. "I don’t care who you are or what economic situation you’re in; high, medium, low, no income, or unemployed."

However, tax experts say those forms and schedules are actually designed to help people save money.

"If you have knowledge about how it works, you can utilize the tax code to benefit you more in the long run," explained Fola Financial founder Sheneya Wilson. "However, most people don’t have that knowledge, and I think that is what creates this fear of the IRS and paying taxes when essentially the tax code is not there to harm anyone"

Watch this video to learn more about how the tax code got to be so complicated and whether it really is a good thing for the taxpayer.

00:00 — Intro
1:53 — Why taxes are complicated
5:53 — Paying for tax help
9:00 — Reforming the code

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