The role and impact of taxes in the lives of Americans makes basic tax education an imperative for all Americans. Not only will that knowledge be valuable to the taxpayer, it will also be valuable to the Government that imposes a variety of taxes. Specifically, it is our position that the lack of basic understanding of taxes is unwarranted, long overdue and importantly could be costing the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. In this paper, we focus on the personal income tax because it is one of the most recognizable of the taxes and because it does account for a significant amount paid by Americans. While we wholeheartedly agree that basic knowledge of all other types of taxes will equally be valuable, the income tax, we believe, is a good starting point in light of its unique effect on the majority of Americans.