The 2022 tax forms are not yet finalized, but the latest draft version was released on September 2, 2022. And it’s interesting (for us tax nerds) to see what the current progression is.

Do you remember back in 2017 and before, when there was the 1040-EZ, the 1040-A, and the 1040 (long form)? The 1040-EZ was a total of 1 side of paper, while the 1040-A and long form were each 2 full sides (the A was slightly less densely packed).

Then for 2018, courtesy of the TCJA, we only had one 1040, it was about two 1/2 pages long, and it farmed off a lot of the prior material onto several new schedules? This, in the name of “paperwork reduction“?

By 2021’s tax return, we were back to two approaching-full pages.

And now, the draft 2022 tax return is even longer than the 2021 version, with 9 new lines added on the front page, and 2 lines removed on the back page. Note we haven’t brought back any of those items that had been farmed off in 2018 to those new schedules; these are new questions, all about trying to be very in your face about reporting your sources of income:

• household employee wages
• Tip income
• Medicaid waiver payments
• Taxable dependent care benefits
• Employer-provided adoption benefits
• Uncollected Social Security and Medicare taxes
• Other earned income
• And non-taxable combat pay elections (even though it’s not going to be taxed; this one had previously been on the back, and is the only not-new but newly on the front page item)

It also enlarges and renames the digital assets question that was required in 2021.

Why all of these new lines? I suspect it has to do with August’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, with its increase in funding for the IRS. With more funding, the IRS can exert more efforts in the area of tax enforcement. And tax enforcement, besides helping to encourage good behavior among those with ill-intent, also helps collect properly due taxes from those ignorant of tax law and with improperly filed returns. Tax enforcement is a net-positive activity, the IRS brings in significantly more than $1 in additional tax revenue to support our government’s expenses for every $1 spent on tax enforcement. If you are being legitimate about your taxes, this should sound like a good investment from your perspective, because that’s less of a raise in future taxes that we should be subjected to.

Stay tuned to see how the 2023 tax season pans out. Tax preparers have had a rough 2020, 2021, and 2022 tax season, a lighter load in 2023 will help keep so many of them from burning out and exiting the profession.