90th Anniversary - The 1928 Individual Income Tax Return

LWH CPAs is a public accounting firm with four locations, including Paris, Casey, and Tuscola, Illinois and Terre Haute, Indiana.  We seek to be our clients’ most trusted advisor and provide innovative solutions, while focusing on client needs, quality, and timeliness. We provide a wide range of services, from tax planning and compliance to auditing, accounting, payroll, and business valuation services.  Clients range from individuals with small businesses to multi-state corporations.  

This year, LWH is celebrating its 90th anniversary.  To celebrate our anniversary, we are hosting events in each city related to common QuickBooks mistakes and the effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.  Please contact us for details if you are interested in attending any of our presentations.

LWH was founded in 1928 and many things have changed over the decades.  One drastic change is the length of the individual income tax packet.  In 1928, the individual income tax return packet was only three pages!  The main form, schedules, and instructions were each one page in length.  See below for a look at the 1928 tax return packet. 

Today, the process is significantly more involved.  The 2017 1040 is only two pages.  However, this does not include countless schedules and forms that are required to be attached to the main form.  The instructions alone for the form are 107 pages.

Nothing is as simple as it used to be, but the IRS has been working on significant changes to the 2018 form to help shorten it. Although the 2018 Form 1040 has been condensed based on the drafts released, it will still include countless additional schedules that may need to be attached.  We are unlikely to have a tax form as simple as the one below again.

LWH looks forward to another 90 years of providing quality services to the communities we serve.