Americans Are Overpaying Their Taxes — And The “Big Beautiful Bill” Is A Step Toward Fixing It

By Julio Gonzalez - Engineered Tax Services

For years, Americans have been told to “pay their fair share.”

What they haven’t been told is how many are paying more than they legally owe — simply because the tax code is too complicated to navigate without expert help.

The IRS recently acknowledged that nearly 1 in 5 eligible taxpayers fail to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) — a refundable credit worth thousands of dollars to working families.

That’s not tax evasion.

That’s tax confusion.

And confusion disproportionately hurts working Americans.

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The Real Problem: Complexity Favors The Informed

The tax code is not just a revenue system. It’s a policy system designed to:

• Reward work
• Encourage family stability
• Incentivize education
• Promote retirement savings
• Support entrepreneurship

But when credits go unclaimed, the system fails the very people it was meant to support.

Large corporations have teams of tax professionals.
High-net-worth individuals have private advisors.
Working families are handed a filing deadline and a maze of forms.

That imbalance is not about rates.

It’s about access.

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The 10 Most Missed Tax Breaks In 2025

Here are the tax benefits millions of Americans miss each year:
1.    Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
2.    Child Tax Credit (CTC)
3.    Child & Dependent Care Credit
4.    American Opportunity Tax Credit
5.    Lifetime Learning Credit
6.    Saver’s Credit
7.    Student Loan Interest Deduction
8.    Self-Employed Health Insurance Deduction
9.    Charitable Contribution Deductions
10.    State & Local Tax (SALT) Deduction

When nearly 20% of eligible Americans miss just one refundable credit like the EITC, we aren’t looking at laziness.

We’re looking at systemic overcomplexity.

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Why The “Big Beautiful Bill” Matters

This is why tax reform efforts — including what many have called the “Big Beautiful Bill” — matter.

Pro-growth tax policy under President Trump focused on:

• Lowering rates
• Expanding credits
• Encouraging domestic production
• Rewarding capital investment
• Simplifying key areas of the code

When tax policy promotes growth and clarity, compliance improves and prosperity follows.

Pro-growth reform isn’t about giving breaks to corporations.

It’s about ensuring Americans keep more of what they earn — legally.

It’s about making the code work for workers, families, and small business owners — not just those who can afford elite advisory teams.

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The Bigger Conversation

Tax fairness isn’t about raising taxes.

It’s about ensuring Americans understand the incentives already available to them.

When families miss credits worth thousands, that’s not a revenue victory.

It’s a knowledge failure.

Reform that prioritizes growth, transparency, and simplicity is a step in the right direction.

Because the real issue in 2025 isn’t that Americans aren’t paying their fair share.

It’s that millions are unknowingly paying more than they owe.

And fixing that starts with leadership willing to pursue bold reform — not bigger bureaucracy.