If only more things would continue to be that simple.

@mopar_man: The 1040-EZ form is not that bad. It looks complicated, and you have to refer to a chart or two, but in the end it's not that bad. I've done it with and without tax software.

Of course, not everyone is eligible to use it...

pretty amazing considering there was no layout software back then.

"Husband and wife"?!? First, why does the non-womyn come first? Hello! Shouldn't this be "domestic partner(s)"?

Nah, just kidding, "spouse" as used on current forms is fine with me. So, from a civil rather than religious perspective, is gay marriage.

But I am absolutely opposed to gay divorce.

This is really interesting. First, I like the way it allows the possibility that the wife is the primary breadwinner, but only in a parenthetical way. It'd be interesting to see how this language changed over the years.

Second, notice that the filer doesn't calculate the tax; that's left to the IRS. I wonder when that changed...the advent of the pocket calculator maybe? We really do too much work on our taxes: the IRS gets all our W-2s and whatnot, why don't they send us a tax form already partially filled out? Even better, give us a web interface with that information already filled in.

Third: $5000/yr was such a large income that you had to file form 1040--I wonder what kicked in at that point? (Or maybe they figure that, if you're that rich, you can calculate your own darn tax. :)

Not sure what this has to do with baby-boomers, except maybe this guy was the parent of some. ??

My mom kept all her income tax records going back to 1941, when she first began working. After both my parents had died, in early 2002 my husband and I discovered everything still neatly filed and preserved in a basement file cabinet. Interesting stuff.

As Buran said, this only a little less complicated than the 1040-EZ.

If you have less than $100k of limited forms of income (wage income,

The 1040EZ probably takes about 15-20 minutes at most after you find all your papers

my favorite part is: "EMPLOYEES OPTIONAL U.S. Individual Income Tax Return"

@ElizabethD: Yea, the oldest baby-boomer would have been four or five years old when they did their 1949 taxes. The baby-boom began in 1946, or 1945, depending on whose theory you want to subscribe to.

Whats the fine for being 58 years past due?!

@Buran:
The 1040EZ is really simple, I agree. I did mine (at the last possible minute) last year while waiting in the Comcast drive through line, using only the calculator on my cellphone. I also did my Massachusetts state taxes at the same time.

@KatieKate93: Comcast has a drivethrough?

1040 and 1040EZ aren't that hard if your using software to do it. I itemized my 05 taxes and it was simple. I don't understand what is so hard about this. If it's really complicated get a tax professional (I'm not talking about H&R Block).