By bbr

Published on AccountingToday on April 22, 2014.

by Sarah Warlick, content director

Tax season has come and gone again, in its annual waltz of terror. Did you enjoy the whirl? That’s probably not a realistic question, considering how most people feel about the spring ritual of feeding and tending the IRS. Individual or business owner, there’s enough suffering for everyone this time of year. But you did it – it’s over and done with until 2015. Celebrate your success! And then take a moment to breathe deeply and realize that yes, that is the scent of new growth and flowers abloom. Spring has arrived!

It’s hard to appreciate the change of seasons or the more entertaining aspects of taxes while you’re in the midst of the sorting and the calculating and the paying. Now that it’s behind you, however, you may be amused to learn a few tax facts:

Does the tax code seem excessively long to you? That’s because it is. You’re not exaggerating if you’ve complained that it’s the longest thing you’ve ever had to read; this year it contains over 4 million words! For comparison, the complete works of Shakespeare contain only 884,647 and the English language itself includes only slightly more than a million.

It’s more open to interpretation than you may think. Each year Money Magazine used to have fun by getting 50 accountants to prepare tax filings for a single household and then see how consistent the results were. Guess what? They weren’t – at all. Some years they got 50 different answers! In 1998, the last year the magazine performed this excercise, the 50 trained preparers generated 46 distinct responses.

It’s all in a name. Lest you think Money Magazine just picked lousy accountants, it really is a matter of interpretation in many cases. Tax laws aren’t as cut and dry as people often assume. The word ‘tax’ itself is illustrative of this flexibility. It is derived from the Latin verb form ‘taxo’ or in English, “I estimate.” Suddenly the chaos begins to make more sense.

A progressive tax code only goes so far. The U.S. tax code is intended to be progressive, so that the more income you have the more taxes you pay, and the more percentage of your income you pay. Corporations may be people when it comes to political speech, but they certainly aren’t when it comes to the tax laws. Many of the most profitable Fortune 500 companies don’t pay any taxes at all! Over the past five years Duke Energy, Boeing, General Electric, Verizon and many others haven’t paid a dime in federal taxes.

Drinking, smoking and gambling are worth their weight in gold, or at least in taxes. This perennially popular trio generates immense tax revenue for federal coffers in addition to individual state governments. Now that marijuana has joined the mix of legal, taxable products, so-called “sin taxes” are set to start earning a massive windfall for states that allow it. Colorado expects to take in $35 million in taxes from sales of recreational and medicinal pot by June of 2014. The office of Governor John Hickenlooper predicts $188 million in weed tax revenue over the following fiscal year. Just imagine what would happen to the federal budget deficit if marijuana were legalized and taxed on a national basis!

If you find all this riveting, take heart. There is a wealth of information about taxes awaiting the dedicated searcher and believe you me, some of it is super weird. On the other hand, if you’re not experiencing an irresistible compulsion to learn more about taxes you are now free to shove those stacks of papers into a file cabinet, unkink your back and look around you. What’s that you see and smell? Can it be?? Yes! Spring is really here at last, and you’ve earned some time outside to enjoy it. Go forth and pay heed to the flowers (now that you’re done paying taxes to the IRS).