The IRS already kind of does this. They know that when someone itemizes their expenses and their net income is x while net losses are y that their itemization h

The IRS already kind of does this. They know that when someone itemizes their expenses and their net income is x while net losses are y that their itemization has an error threshold of +/-z, where z is an already padded number. All that does is decrease the number of non-random audits they have to do. I'm not sure it'd really make taxes any more simple or complicated than they already are. It's probably important to note there's many different camps here: 1. People who want a simpler tax code (eg: flat tax) 2. People who don't want to have to pay tax processors 3. People who don't want the IRS submission to be an exercise in hedging Personally, I'm more in camp 2, because I recognize our tax code is full of levers we use, that change and adapt, to incentivize activity in the economy.