The Cost of Tax Preparation = Oklahoma's GSP

Updated: Americans will spend about 4 billion hours this year filling out individual income tax forms. At the average hourly private industry compensation cost of $27.42, that time is worth about $110 billion, equivalent to almost the entire annual Gross State Product (GSP) of Kansas. Add to that the $30 billion the IRS estimates Americans will spend out-of-pocket on tax preparation (tax software programs, tax preparers, accountants etc.), and it's equal to the $139 billion annual output of the state of Oklahoma.