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Comment by thaumasiotes | Hacker News Reader

> I think we've fairly well established that the complexity of the code isn't the problem. The IRS knows what you owe and could just tell you if they wanted to.

The IRS has no way to know which of your expenditures are tax-deductible.

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If you think you can do better than the standard deductions, you’re more than welcome to itemize — just like today. Pretending that the current system is as good as it can get the for the vast majority of individuals is disingenuous. Just look at every other country that sends out prefilled forms.

If you're taking the standard deduction, preparing your taxes is already the simple affair everyone says it should be.

Eh, you can take the standard deduction and the foreign tax credit or any of a bunch of other things that don't always have great information on forms.

A whole lot of preparing a tax return is plugging in numbers from forms that are sent to you and the IRS. It would be simpler (but perhaps less timely) if the IRS sent the taxpayer the return and if you disagreed, you could send in an ammended form with any documentation, or just pay the bill/cash the check.

> Pretending that the current system is as good as it can get the for the vast majority of individuals is disingenuous

Pretending the IRS "knows exactly what you owe and could just tell you" is just as disingenuous. In both cases, it's more complicated than that.

Do you honestly believe that the majority of individuals in the United States have complicated or unusual taxes? Do you believe that most individuals have tax situations that change significantly year to year? I suggest you talk with some European colleagues about how prefilled tax forms work in their home countries. I think you’ll be surprised.

Some people have complicated taxes (need to itemize; IRS is missing information). Some people have simple taxes (standard deduction; IRS knows what they owe). Why should the second group have to pay for tax prep software or fill out forms by hand? Just to share the pain of the first group?

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