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Comment by jackowayed | Hacker News Reader

I don't really see this as a big deal.

Think of how horrible it would be if he did something wrong. The average American knows that if they mess up 1 box, as long as all the final numbers come out to about what they should (which is easy to check), it's likely no one will notice.

But someone will notice if the IRS commissioner messes up his taxes, even if it's just forgetting to initial a box, and it would look horrible. Can you imagine how much fun John Stewart would have with it? He'd probably be able to avoid resigning, but his chance of being nominated after Obama's reelection would be basically 0.

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If he forgot to initial a box, John Stewart would have a laugh at his expense and it would underscore the notion that filing is complicated (and should be simplified). But that's about it.

The salient point here is that there is no right answer to even moderately complex tax filings. Ralph Nader did this experiment a while back. The same relatively simple tax filing was sent to something like two dozen IRS offices. Each one checked the filing and weighed in on the correctness of the form. Every office said that the filing was wrong but they all came up with different and widely varying figures for what the "correct" figure should be. I suspect a large part of the reason this guy uses a preparer (software in this case) is so that even if "errors" are discovered, he can plausibly claim that he did the best he could and can expect leniency. (Timothy Geithner, white courtesy phone please.) Think you can just ask the IRS for instruction and/or definitive rulings? They get it wrong, a lot. (http://www.treas.gov/tigta/auditreports/2005reports/20054014...)

Bignum hours and dollars are spent by individuals and corporations attempting to do taxes correctly. The time suck and opportunity costs are massive.

"If he forgot to initial a box". Perhaps you remember Zoë Baird? She didn't pay the "nanny tax" on an illegal alien, and that controversy prevented her from getting to be the attorney general.

That's more than a box, yes, but then the followup nominee, Kimba Wood, DID pay the nanny tax, and herself broke no laws, but had hired another illegal alien. The echo from the previous nominee's case, plus her 5 days of training as a Playboy bunny while a student, prevented her from being attorney general, giving us Janet Reno.

It's really hard to say which things will cause problems.

As for the rest - absolutely agree.

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