Ah, that is much better analogy, yes. I don't think IRS _necessarily_ has no incentive to do the job properly though. If government didn't want those deductions

Ah, that is much better analogy, yes. I don't think IRS _necessarily_ has no incentive to do the job properly though. If government didn't want those deductions and tax cuts used, they would not introduce them in the first place. Excluding the cases where the cuts were made based more on politics than on policy. No idea what proportion that would be. Tax deductions are (supposed to be) made not because government wants to give people a break and be nice, but because it wants to influence certain behaviors. If those cuts are not used then they don't serve their original purpose, so that is an incentive for IRS to count deductions properly.