Tax Trivia

Are you a whiz at trivia? Then take the Tax Trivia Challenge! See how you score on a series of multiple-choice questions that offer little-known tidbits of information. Discover how many hours per year citizens spend preparing their taxes, or in what country people must pay a tax on every television set they own!

Which ancient civilization revered the tax professional as the most noble man in society? What is a duck stamp, and how much is it worth? How many tax returns were filed electronically in the current tax year? What was the total amount in refunds that the IRS paid to taxpayers in the current tax year? What is the origin of the word tariff? What was the name southerners gave to the tariff of 1828? How much do you think the tax on a gold watch was during the Civil War? What were the most popular male and female names in 1935? How did the government use popular culture and the media to inform people about taxes? What phrase describes the way supply-side economics distributes wealth? How much do you think it costs taxpayers for each $100 collected by the IRS? How much do you think the U.K.'s color TV licensing fee is (in U.S. dollars)? What was the top income tax rate during World War I?

In medieval Europe, how was a tithe paid and what was it used for? In what year was the Twenty-fourth Amendment ratified? What is largest expense on average for our states? How many Americans were out of work during the Great Depression? For the year 2013, President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, declared a taxable income of $481,098. What was their total tax liability for that year? How many cocoa beans do you think you would need to buy a rabbit from the Aztecs? What items were first taxed as a luxury in 1898, at the start of the Spanish-American War, and continue to be taxed today? Which issue had the most lobbyists working on it in 1999? What was the average annual income in 1913? In all, about how many people do you think reported 078-05-1120 as their Social Security number? The error rate for a paper return is 21 percent; what do you think the error rate is for an e-file return?