Another federal income tax deadline has passed, but this year, more than before, there are several tax-related issues that are likely to be at the top of most taxpayers' minds.

The first issue might be the total tax burden and the annual report on Tax Freedom Day, which is the estimated day by which the average taxpayer will have earned enough money to pay all of his or her taxes.

This day moves forward or backward as tax levels rise and fall. The traditional Tax Freedom Day, as calculated by the Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C., is now accompanied by a second Tax Freedom Day, which factors in future tax liabilities related to the federal budget deficit.

This year, the normal Tax Freedom Day fell on April 13, meaning the earnings of most Americans from Jan. 1 to April 13 were consumed by taxes. This year's Tax Freedom Day fell eight days earlier than last year, mostly due to the fact that reduced earnings related to the recession will also reduce tax liabilities.

The Tax Foundation noted, however, that even with reduced taxable incomes as well as temporary tax relief included in President Barack Obama's budget, "Americans will pay more in taxes than they will spend on food, clothing and housing combined."

A more-sobering fact is that when the rapidly rising federal budget deficit is included, Tax Freedom Day jumps all the way out to May 29.

In addition to the overall burden of taxes, most Americans also are worried about fairness. And the fairness issue was brought into focus this year as six of Obama's cabinet nominees were found to have "tax issues," meaning unpaid taxes.

The most well-publicized case also is the most ironic. Timothy Geithner, who as Treasury Secretary is in charge of the Internal Revenue Serv-ice, was found to have owed the IRS $34,000 in unpaid payroll and Social Security taxes for the years 2001 and 2002, when he worked as a consultant.

Geithner reported that during those years he prepared his own taxes and didn't understand his obligation to pay those taxes, despite letters from the organization he was working for reminding him that he was responsible for the extra taxes.

Perhaps most embarrassing for Obama was the $128,000 in taxes paid late by former Sen. Tom Daschle, Obama's first pick to head the Health and Human Services Department. Daschle paid the taxes, related to a free limousine and driver provided by a political supporter, only after he was a candidate for a cabinet post.

The most recent "tax issue" for an Obama nominee came from Kathleen Sebelius, Obama's choice to head the Health and Human Services Department. She discovered that she still owed the U.S. Treasury about $7,000 for the period from 2005 to 2007.

Recognizing that anyone can make mistakes, there still are two issues about the tax problems that dogged so many of Obama's cabinet choices.

First, there is the issue of fairness. Most taxpayers have found that if they inadvertently make a mistake with their taxes, they receive threatening letters from the IRS. The letters feel like harassment, and warn of dire consequences unless prompt action is taken to pay the caculated balance due.

Did Geithner, Daschle or Sebelius get the same treatment? If so, how could they have ignored it for so long? And if they didn't get such IRS attention, then why not?

There is a growing perception that tax returns of powerful public figures and others inside Washington's Beltway don't get the same scrutiny as tax returns filed by others. Does the IRS treat the tax returns of the high-powered and well-connected politicians differently?

A second issue Geithner's story highlights is the complexity of the tax code.

Geithner, who is clearly smart and financially sophisticated, claims his unpaid taxes were the result of not understanding the tax code. If the tax code is too complicated for Geithner, the architect of complex federal bank bailout programs, then it is just too complicated.

It's well known that the federal income tax code is complex, in large part because of the many loopholes inserted into its 11,000 pages by members of Congress for special interests they represent. The loopholes are generally inserted to save millions of dollars for large corporate campaign donors.

Maybe the embarrassing tax issues of so many Obama cabinet members will build White House support for tax reform aimed at simplifying the tax code.

The fact that most Americans must use professional tax preparers to file their tax returns is evidence that the tax code is too complicated.

And the Tax Foundation estimates that Americans expend 6.6 billion hours filling out tax forms and spend about $200 billion a year on tax compliance. This high cost of compliance is another argument for tax simplification, or for a shift toward a less time-consuming and harder-to-cheat system, such as a national sales tax.

With the headaches and hassles of the April 15 tax-filing deadline now behind us, Americans can hope that tax reform will move to a higher position on Obama's agenda.