The Internal Revenue Code, which you have probably never seen, let alone read, is technically only 5,368 pages. That's just the Code itself, not including the regulations, annotations to court cases, revenue rulings, explanatory material, and other IRS documents. If you strip out the indexes and other material which are not part of the Code its really only 5,084 pages.
The Income Tax Regulations, which are not technically part of the Code, but help to explain it amount to 13,880 pages. So where does your 73,954 figure come from?
The Hinckley spokeswoman directed us to a colorful chart by CCH that shows how the number of pages in one of its publications, "CCH Standard Federal Tax Reporter," has increased over the years. Its 2011 edition has 72,536 pages.
But that publication isn't just the tax code. "That includes the code, regs, annotations to court cases, revenue rulings, explanatory material, other things that come out of the IRS that are not regulations," said Mark Luscombe, principal analyst for the tax and accounting group at CCH. "But some politicians and media have picked that up and called it the code, which is not correct."
Only 5368 pages...
I feel better now.
Facts are tricky things... The 73,000 plus pages is what the government provides to businesses and citizens to navigate the tax code (The full text of an Internal Revenue Code section, with brief legislative history notes, is followed by the relevant committee reports in full text, final, temporary and proposed regulations, editorially prepared explanations, and annotations). Everything you need to understand the tax code and how it could affect you in the near future. No one, and I repeat no one understands the tax code or how to navigate it. It is a hot mess. You could call the IRS for a year and get a different answer to the same question.
Here is a nice chart of the documents growth.
http://www.cch.com/TaxLawPileUp.pdf