AMERICANS filed their income taxes yesterday, swearing that “under penalties of perjury...to the best of my knowledge and belief, they are true, correct, and complete.” 
 
 Former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld has admitted that his return may be none of the above. Yesterday his office released (via Twitter) a letter to the Internal Revenue Service in which he says: “I have absolutely no idea whether our tax returns and our tax payments are accurate.” (See below.) 
 
 “The tax code is so complex and the forms are so complicated, that I know I cannot have any confidence that I know what is being requested and therefore I cannot and do not know, and I suspect a great many Americans cannot know, whether or not their tax returns are accurate,” Mr Rumsfeld wrote. 
 
 Mr Rumsfeld was wrong about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but in this case he is clearly right. The American tax code is a "known unknown", in Rummiespeak. It is 70,000 pages long and might as well be written in Klingon. Few Americans have a clue whether they are complying with it. Some 90% of them (including Mr Rumsfeld) pay a tax accountant or use commercial software to help navigate it (see Economist articles here and here and here and here and here, among others). There are proposals to simplify the code (see article here). But don’t hold your breath. ||||| To help personalize content, tailor and measure ads, and provide a safer experience, we use cookies. By clicking or navigating the site, you agree to allow our collection of information on and off Facebook through cookies. Learn more, including about available controls: Cookies Policy
– Can't make heads or tails of your taxes? Well don't feel too bad, because at least one former secretary of defense can't either. Donald Rumsfeld sent his tax returns the IRS along with a cheeky letter informing them that he has "absolutely no idea" whether they're accurate. Rumsfeld posted the letter to Facebook and Twitter, adding that he sends a similar letter every year. "This note is to alert you folks that I know that I do not know whether or not my tax returns are accurate, which is a sad commentary on governance," he wrote. "The tax code is so complex and the forms are so complicated that I know that I cannot have any confidence that I know what is being requested." We'd make a "known unknown" joke here, but the Economist beat us to it.