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The government is naturally incentivized to maximize revenue. Individuals are incentivized to pay as little tax as they can, legally. Private tax prep software

The government is naturally incentivized to maximize revenue. Individuals are incentivized to pay as little tax as they can, legally. Private tax prep software is pretty aggressive about identifying all possible deductions to reported income. The government would not be as motivated in designing their own system. You can see this in the paper filing forms, they have detailed instructions, but almost nothing on how to reduce tax paid, besides things like the child tax credit and earned income tax credit.

runako 4y ago
> The government is naturally incentivized to maximize revenue This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation. The tax law is what it Congress decides it is. The law depends on taxpayers to report their incomes as well as deductions and other facets of their financial lives (e.g. household size, addresses, etc.). A government-run tax prep site couldn't necessarily pull in all of your deductions, that's correct. But it also couldn't necessarily pull in all your income (especially business income, offshore income, etc.). It's mostly neutral in that respect.
- missedthecue 4y ago
  But most Americans have at least a few deductions. How many Americans have offshore income? Especially the ones that would be relying on gov. tax prep? In this case, it is mostly one sided
  - runako 4y ago
    See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32513370 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32513370 Roughly 90% of Americans file using the standard deduction ($13k for a single person, $26k for a married couple filing jointly). Median household income is ~$67k, so the median household is not itemizing. The remaining 10% of people would not be bound to use the free public system.
    - missedthecue 4y ago
      You can qualify for a number of deductions without itemizing.
      - runako 4y ago
        Correct, but in that case there is no impact to your taxes.

runako 4y ago

> The government is naturally incentivized to maximize revenue This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation. The tax law is what it Congress decides it is. The law depends on taxpayers to report their incomes as well as deductions and other facets of their financial lives (e.g. household size, addresses, etc.). A government-run tax prep site couldn't necessarily pull in all of your deductions, that's correct. But it also couldn't necessarily pull in all your income (especially business income, offshore income, etc.). It's mostly neutral in that respect.

missedthecue 4y ago
But most Americans have at least a few deductions. How many Americans have offshore income? Especially the ones that would be relying on gov. tax prep? In this case, it is mostly one sided
- runako 4y ago
  See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32513370 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32513370 Roughly 90% of Americans file using the standard deduction ($13k for a single person, $26k for a married couple filing jointly). Median household income is ~$67k, so the median household is not itemizing. The remaining 10% of people would not be bound to use the free public system.
  - missedthecue 4y ago
    You can qualify for a number of deductions without itemizing.
    - runako 4y ago
      Correct, but in that case there is no impact to your taxes.