As we head into the 2016 presidential election cycle, just about every candidate talks about taxes in the United States, and many of those presidential hopefuls are calling for reforms to our tax system. They say that it's unnecessarily complicated and bloated.

How simple could it be, though?  According to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, all you have to do is look to Northern Europe to find out just how easy it could be.  At Gov. Rick Scott's Economic Growth Summit held in Orlando in early June, Bush made the following statement:

"You can fill out your tax return in Estonia online in five minutes."

PolitiFact Florida looked into Bush's claim and reporter Joshua Gillin says it rates TRUE. Gillin says that five minutes is actually a conservative estimate.

"We talked to some journalists from Estonia to find out about this," Gillin said. "Believe it or not, it takes less than five minutes to file your tax return. All you have to do in that country of about 1.3 million people is go online, review your return, hit 'send,' and that's it. The government already fills everything out for you so that when you go online, everything is there waiting for you."

That leads to a pretty obvious question for the United States: Why don't we do that here?  Gillin says that there are parties who like the current system. 

"You have to remember that accountants and tax preparation services get a lot of business from people who want them to do their taxes.  If that was all simplified by Congress to the extent that it's simplified in Estonia, why would anybody choose to use those companies? For that reason, they lobby pretty vigorously to protect their interests."

Tax reform may be a hot topic on the campaign trail, but in Estonia, they already have a quick system in place, and Jeb Bush's claim rates TRUE by PolitiFact.

SOURCES: Fill out your Estonia tax return in five minutes?

  • PolitiFact ruling
  • Jeb Bush, comments at Rick Scott’s economic summit in Orlando, Fla., June 2, 2015
  • Business Insider, "Estonia Might Have The Most Efficient Tax Filing System In The World," Feb. 17, 2012
  • The Economist, "How did Estonia become a leader in technology?" July 30, 2013
  • Sunlight Foundation, "Tax preparers lobby heavily against simple filing," April 15, 2013
  • New York Times, "Oval Office Books," Aug. 19, 2006
  • European Journalism Centre, "Media Landscapes: Estonia," accessed June 4, 2015
  • PolitiFact, "No movement on bill to create form," April 25, 2012
  • Email interview with Kyle E. Pomerleau, economist at the Tax Foundation, June 3, 2015
  • Email interview with Tarmo Vahter, deputy editor of Eesti Ekspress, June 4, 2015
  • Email interview with Argo Ideon, political and business editor at Postimees AS, June 4, 2015
  • Email interview with Sirje Rank, foreign editor at Äripäev, June 4, 2015
  • Email interview with Kaja Koovit, head of the business desk at Eesti Päevaleht, June 4, 2015
  • Email interview with Mailin Aasmäe, spokesperson for the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, June 4, 2015
  • Email interview with Mailis Peek da Costa Figueira, official with the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, June 4, 2015
  • Email interview with Hannes Udde, official with the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, June 4, 2015
  • Email interview with Matt Gorman, spokesman for Jeb Bush, June 3, 2015