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Comment by r00fus | Hacker News Reader

The disparity between that and the government correcting me for being off on my tax by $500 is breathtaking.

Obvious question - cui bono?

If the government is correcting an error for $500 on your taxes, its almost certainly doing that using an automated system with very little human-time-per-case for oversight. This is possible because of developed-world infrastructure -- all relevant numbers are digitized and entered into computers, all people are documented and contactable, etc. -- which is missing in Afghanistan, so it's not super surprising.

Edit: Woah, HN, you have truly gone crazy. My comment is an explanation for why accountability is so much harder in Afghanistan than the developed world. It is not a general defense all US tax-collection procedures, and it is especially not a place for you to vent frustration about how the lack of pre-filled-out returns in the US benefits tax software makers.

If they have the software why not just send me a rundown of how much I owe and I could just sign over to them how much they want.

Arghhh this frustrates me every tax season.

Because Intuit wouldn't make money if that happened.

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...

https://priceonomics.com/the-stanford-professor-who-fought-t... (and lost)

Intuit wouldn't like that at all. Corruption is rampant there too.

They have the software, but they only have some of the numbers.

Your tax return includes all those that might not be reported.

For example of you are doing small non w2 jobs on the side that you haven't received a 1099 for, the IRS had no way of knowing about those without an audit.

Are you sure the government does that? Did you actually check?

I've never been questioned by the Feds on anything, but my state disallowed a deduction with value to my taxes of <$0.50.

My uncle was in a few cash-heavy businesses (laundromat + plumber) he was audited annually, especially on the laundromat side.

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