Americans spend $146 billion and 11.6 billion hours doing their taxes, and most of it is just filling out paperwork

Tax Day is April 15, three weeks away. If you’ve procrastinated doing your taxes so far, that’s probably for a good reason: After all, the fear of a potential jail sentence for accidentally miscounting something looms over you constantly, turning it into a repetitive, redundant, and reiterative, time-consuming process.

Now, there’s not only a price tag on your returns, but on the effort it takes you to complete them—and it’s costly.

How much does it cost to do your taxes in 2026?