How much time do you spend each year on government paperwork?

A new analysis of federal bureaucracy reveals that Americans spend an unbelievable 11.4 billion hours filling out paperwork to comply with government demands.

According to the review of federal paperwork requirements carried out by the American Action Forum, there are some 23,000 forms various government agencies ask Americans to complete each year.

But you may be surprised at which agencies require the most paperwork.

“Treasury, with an almost countless number of tax forms (there are 1,599) is not the runaway leader in federal paperwork,” said the report. “Although it imposes the greatest number of paperwork hours, it is actually just fourth in the federal forms race, behind HHS and the Department of Agriculture.”

The Department of Health and Human Services earned the designation as the agency with the most forms, with 5,005 pieces of paperwork it asks Americans to fill out. Just fewer than 900 of those forms are related to Obamacare alone.

The Department of Agriculture imposes more than 3,700 forms.

AFF reported: “What makes Agriculture stand out from other cabinet agencies is not just its desire to collect data on every form of fruit, nut, or vegetable in the U.S. The agency also has a responsibility to implement important housing and welfare laws. It collects 97 forms under the ‘Rural Rental Housing Program’ and 38 forms for the ‘Rural Energy’ program. Although Agriculture’s overall paperwork burden is not record-breaking, its reach throughout the economy is quite broad.”

AFF noted that many of the forms government agencies require do have legitimate public policy purpose— but the group added that federal officials should streamline the information-gathering process with electronic filing options.

“[T] here are more than 1,000 Treasury forms that cannot be submitted online, as well as more than 1,400 Agriculture forms,” the group said. “In the year 2016, it’s discouraging that such a large percentage (28 percent) of supposedly vital private information must be mailed back to the federal government.”

So just how much time on average do Americans spend filling out government paperwork each year? Based on AAF’s numbers, it works out to about 35 hours of paperwork per person annually.

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