“An income tax form is like a laundry list—either way you lose your shirt” is a one-line saying about income taxes that has been printed on many images. The quote was credited to American comedian and radio personality Fred Allen (1894-1956) in March 1949.
 
   
Wikipedia: Fred Allen
John Florence Sullivan (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956), known professionally as Fred Allen, was an American comedian whose absurdist, topically-pointed radio program The Fred Allen Show (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the Golden Age of American radio.
     
9 March 1949, Joplin (MO) Globe, “Income Taxes,” pg. 4, col. 1:
“An income tax form is like a laundry list—either way you lose your shirt,” barks Fred Allen.
 
17 March 1949, Soda Springs (ID) Sun, pg. 7, col. 1:
A fellow observed the other day an income tax form is like a laundry list—either way you lose your shirt.
 
6 August 1951, Greenwood (MS) Commonwealth, sec. 2, pg. 4, col. 2:
An income tax form is like a laundry list—either way you stand to lose your shirt.
 
Google Books
New Treasury of Stories for Every Speaking and Writing Occasion
By Jacob Morton Braude
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
1959
Pg. 181:
An income tax form is like a laundry list—either way you lose your shirt.
 
Google Books
The Modern Handbook of Humor
By Ralph Louis Woods
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
1967
Pg. 112:
An income tax form is like a laundry list — in both instances you lose your shirt.
 
Google Books
The Complete Book of Zingers
By Croft M. Pentz
Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers
1990
Pg. 306:
An income tax form is like a laundry list — either way you lose your shirt.
 
Google Books
J.K. Lasser’s From Ebay to Mary Kay:
Taxes Made Easy for Your Home Business
By Gary W. Carter
Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons, Inc.
2006
Pg. 142:
An income tax form is like a laundry list—either way you lose your shirt. —Fred Allen