Tax Day 2016 by the numbers [infographic]

(Editor’s note: This article was originally published on WalletHub. You can read it here.)

April 15, or April 18 this year due to Emancipation Day scheduling, is one of those dates that’s simply synonymous with a particular event, representing Tax Day, like Dec. 25 and Jan. 1 do Christmas and New Year’s, respectively.

The glaring difference is that we approach this IRS holiday with foreboding — images of audits and unpaid liabilities dancing in our heads rather than sugar-plums. Such concerns, embedded in our DNA since Revolutionary times, are also well-justified — considering that we collectively fork over $1.62 trillion to Uncle Sam each year and spend 6.1 billion hours making sure our payments are proper.

The U.S. tax landscape has also changed a great deal in recent years, with returns becoming predominantly electronic, the IRS budget again swelling after five years of shrinkage and the tax code ballooning to five times the number of words in the Bible or two times the entire “Game of Thrones” series.

With that in mind, we decided to take a closer look at what the contemporary U.S. taxpayer faces each April, highlighting the most interesting statistics related to how we prepare, pay and process taxes. We also interviewed a panel of leading experts on matters relating to both tax policy and practicality, and you can check out their insights below. (Click on the infographic to enlarge.)