2 ms·
There's an argument that: If the IRS does not show all it's cards up front, people might disclose additional income the IRS were not aware of. If you think of f
by xyzzy123 8y ago
There's an argument that: If the IRS does not show all it's cards up front, people might disclose additional income the IRS were not aware of. If you think of filing taxes like a negotiation, there's benefit to "not being the first to name a number".
With that said, I am absolutely "pro" automatic filing.
- labster 8y agoI doubt that the "pro" argument is worth the lost economic productivity of taxpayers, or the time spent double-checking the average citizen's math. In public policy you should always be aware that you are not optimizing for rule compliance alone. You optimize for the healthiest society, which typically contains a small amount of cheating. Random tax audits of the middle class probably don't make enough income to justify their existence-- but they scare enough people into compliance.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- naniwaduni 8y agoEven if we offered the IRS the choice, though, I doubt they'd would choose the current system. It's easier to check someone else's diffs on your own (systematically generated) work than to check everyone's individually. The IRS operates at scale.