Or how about - send me a tax bill at the end of the year and let me contest/adjust it if I want. The IRS knows the exact number the vast majority of people owe, but just chooses to keep it a secret.
Not a US citizen so forgive me - but does the IRS not auto file tax returns for "regular" incomes - those managed fully by your employer?
In my country, it's automatically done for those with "regular" incomes, even end of year tax back is as simple as logging on to Revenue and clicking a button.
You're only on your own if you're self employed, generate non-standard income etc (like shares, which I imagine most people on HN are).
In those cases, the government does _not_ know how much you earn until your audited. And audits are neither automated nor simple, a dedicated auditor is tasked with identifying all your sources of income and verifying everything. Point being it's manual.
The tax prep software companies (Intuit, H&R Block, etc.) have successfully lobbied to make such a system illegal and keep the system as complicated as possible. There has been some movement to make this simpler but I don’t have much hope it will actually bring about meaningful change. Free file forms is a joke and hardly better than filling out PDFs (or paper) manually.
Companies DO submit your income to the IRS. However, citizens are required to separately submit their incomes on tax returns. Taxes on (nearly all) stock income is also reported to the IRS. The IRS cross-checks these values between the company-reported and the earner-reported submissions.
The argument is that if the system auto-filled tax returns, people wouldn't report income that the system hadn't auto-filled, so the government would lose money.
All federal electronic filing is done through private companies. Even the IRS's website for "free fillable forms" (which appears as if it were run by the IRS) is actually run by a private company. The only way to not submit taxes through a private company is to submit them on paper.
The IRS has a thing called "free file" for simple tax situations below an income threshold, but Americans in several populous states would still need to separately prepare their state income tax filings.
Americans in most states would need to prepare their state income tax. Americans in several states would also need to prepare their local income tax forms.
Personally, I am filing income tax returns to four jurisdictions this year. One federal, two states, and one municipality.
The most the government does is provide their own tax filing software for free if you meet a certain income threshold, but (1) you still have to do all the work yourself (collect forms, enter data, figure out what you owe) and (2) there is an added penalty if you get something wrong. So most choose to use paid tax preparation services regardless.
It's incorrect to frame it like it's the IRS' fault, when it's really the fault of companies like intuit or H&R Block and their congressional lobbying efforts, and of course the congress that keeps taking the money in exchange for continuing this system.
A simpler system can “solve” a problem, but it often disregards complexity instead of handling it.
A federal sales tax is such an example. It simplifies the calculation of tax burden (solves the problem) by implementing a regressive tax code and placing an undue burden on lower income residents.
Tax deductions for single employed people, married couples and married couples with children, without capital gains, are stupid simple and also cover the majority of the population.
