6 ms·

Yep -- this is some pretty evil rent-seeking. Unfortunately, disrupting it (i.e. automatic filing) requires political action rather than tech. For people with

Yep -- this is some pretty evil rent-seeking. Unfortunately, disrupting it (i.e. automatic filing) requires political action rather than tech. For people with a single wage/salary job, the IRS already has a good idea what they owe thanks to their employers' reporting. IRS could simply mail them "we think $X is what you made, and $Y is what you owe," and they could either say "okay" if they agree, or fill out the forms otherwise.

cballard 11y ago
It seems that we should just require any company providing taxable things to common people (e.g. employers and banks) to do all of the work. Then the IRS can just figure it all out from that, you have a few checkboxes for if you have dependents, and it does all of the math for you. That way we have a smaller set of organizations doing the work once instead of every taxpayer doing it independently.
- coldpie 11y ago
  But think of the cost such regulation would cause upon our poor, under-served businesses! There's no way they could survive under such obligations! Won't somebody think of the businesses?!? And don't forget to conveniently ignore the time cost of each individual taxpayer spending several hours every year doing their taxes (not to mention evaluating dozens of healthcare options...) or paying some business to do their taxes instead.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  What work do you mean? There are already extensive reporting requirements for pretty much any entity involved in a situation where someone might make income. I think pretty much any tax document an individual receives has also been provided to the IRS. (For instance, stock brokers must now track lots for their customers, employers withhold payroll taxes and report income, etc)
masklinn 11y ago
Pretty much how it works in most of europe. Not even mailed, during the filing period log into the tax authority's site, check that the pre-filled declaration looks OK and validate.
- willis77 11y ago
  Sounds glorious. In the U.S., figuring out taxes is like: Take line 39b, multiply it by your age as determined by worksheet 6689. If you are between 41 and 43 years of age, enter '0'. If you were not subject to the Railroad Act of 1938's exempt dependent pension clause (this is not common), add 13 to this number in hexadecimal, else, subtract 2 and multiply by 1.388688. If you did not have healthcare for more than 14 minutes during the prior year and line 17 is 4 or greater and you live in a zone designated as "clown free" by your local municipality, draw a unicode snowman on this line and prove Fermat's theorem in the margins of Schedule Q...
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    We can change this if we want. We just need to collaborate and apply pressure on legislators. 1. Propose legislation to allow the IRS to perform the work directly third parties are currently performing 2. Have it sponsored (look through opensecrets.org, find legislators who aren't taking money from intuit) 3. If you don't vote for it, we work to replace your with a competitor in your next election cycle
  - algorithmsRcool 11y ago
    Is this really the case? Can't most people can just file with a 1040(A or EZ) and be done pretty quickly. I was under the impression that you only have to break out the crazy worksheets or software if you want to get fancy with your deductions or take advantage of tax credits. You can save alot of money this way, but really it's the deductions that are the complication (and the audit risk...) but how can you simplify the deduction process, you have to get specific by the very nature of the task.
    - johnward 11y ago

cballard 11y ago

It seems that we should just require any company providing taxable things to common people (e.g. employers and banks) to do all of the work. Then the IRS can just figure it all out from that, you have a few checkboxes for if you have dependents, and it does all of the math for you. That way we have a smaller set of organizations doing the work once instead of every taxpayer doing it independently.

coldpie 11y ago
But think of the cost such regulation would cause upon our poor, under-served businesses! There's no way they could survive under such obligations! Won't somebody think of the businesses?!? And don't forget to conveniently ignore the time cost of each individual taxpayer spending several hours every year doing their taxes (not to mention evaluating dozens of healthcare options...) or paying some business to do their taxes instead.
maxerickson 11y ago
What work do you mean? There are already extensive reporting requirements for pretty much any entity involved in a situation where someone might make income. I think pretty much any tax document an individual receives has also been provided to the IRS. (For instance, stock brokers must now track lots for their customers, employers withhold payroll taxes and report income, etc)

masklinn 11y ago

Pretty much how it works in most of europe. Not even mailed, during the filing period log into the tax authority's site, check that the pre-filled declaration looks OK and validate.

willis77 11y ago
Sounds glorious. In the U.S., figuring out taxes is like: Take line 39b, multiply it by your age as determined by worksheet 6689. If you are between 41 and 43 years of age, enter '0'. If you were not subject to the Railroad Act of 1938's exempt dependent pension clause (this is not common), add 13 to this number in hexadecimal, else, subtract 2 and multiply by 1.388688. If you did not have healthcare for more than 14 minutes during the prior year and line 17 is 4 or greater and you live in a zone designated as "clown free" by your local municipality, draw a unicode snowman on this line and prove Fermat's theorem in the margins of Schedule Q...
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  We can change this if we want. We just need to collaborate and apply pressure on legislators. 1. Propose legislation to allow the IRS to perform the work directly third parties are currently performing 2. Have it sponsored (look through opensecrets.org, find legislators who aren't taking money from intuit) 3. If you don't vote for it, we work to replace your with a competitor in your next election cycle
- algorithmsRcool 11y ago
  Is this really the case? Can't most people can just file with a 1040(A or EZ) and be done pretty quickly. I was under the impression that you only have to break out the crazy worksheets or software if you want to get fancy with your deductions or take advantage of tax credits. You can save alot of money this way, but really it's the deductions that are the complication (and the audit risk...) but how can you simplify the deduction process, you have to get specific by the very nature of the task.
  - johnward 11y ago