"I am talking about the total economic cost which includes the economic disincentives to work, save and invest. See James L. Payne's work -- he calculated .$65 in 1995. It has gone up since then."
-- I thought I read at FairTax.org that $0.65 is the high-end number.
You probably did, and $.65 is the "official" value. But the study that produced that figure is 10+ years old now (book was published in 1995), and what with the changes in the code since then, $1.00 is easily in the ball park.
The true cost of the income tax system and the IRS is one that no government poobah would want known by the general public!