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Comment by linuxftw | Hacker News Reader

The IRS has no incentive to make sure you get all the deductions you're allowed. They don't have incentives to make sure the software works well under load and at scale. Whatever they put out will likely be half-baked, and the software will degrade rapidly because the tax laws change each year.

I suspect, that given the currently complexity of the tax system itself (rather than the filing, which seems to be pretty straight forward), the private based system saves the tax payers money each year over any system the government could create.

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Defeatism. Every other civilized country (and US states) manage to do it, and IRS has always been helpful and knowledgeable if you ask them. They've been using electronic systems for several decades already.

Oh, and USDS is involved, so shouldn't be a contractor shitshow.

Obviously, what the tax preparers are afraid of is that the IRS could provide system that works perfectly well for a large majority of their customers, leaving them only the people with more complex needs, or need to manage a lot of deductions, etc. No one would be forcing you to use the IRS system if you think it doesn't work for you.

No, but I would be forced to pay for the system whether I use it or not. I prefer not to pay for the system.

Yeah, I know, tax money going for stuff that other people might benefit from more than we do ourselves, the great tragedy of our times. Never mind that any system that improves compliance could raise more money than it costs.

Would you prefer to pay even more for somebody filing by paper?

That's our current system. You can pay nothing to file, but it means that the government then has to spend a ton of resources on managing pieces of paper. I'd prefer for staff time to be spent going after fraud than trying to read bad handwriting.

Not American, but as I understand it the IRS has to pay interest in the case of an overpayment? That's a disincentive for them to screw you over.

No, the IRS doesn't pay anyone interest. You will owe them interest if you underpay, however.

Meh it's rare, but the IRS does occasionally pay people interest. Usually it's of the "we were reviewing taxes and you overpaid by X amount so here is (1.03)^(years)×x." Still nonzero. Happened to me. https://www.irs.gov/payments/interest#pay

This likely will depend on the administration. With the ACA, for example, you see Democratic administrations try to get more people to take part in receiving subsidies and GOP administrations not wanting to put additional resources towards advertising them. (Not trying to get into a debate here on whether that's good/bad.)

In this case with the IRS program, the WaPo article even notes about the Biden administration wanting to "better serve low- and middle-income Americans entitled to a bevy of credits." As in, they want to make sure folks get all the deductions (and other benefits) they're allowed.

Edit: Let me also add that many people use paper forms because it's free (or other reasons). There has always been a publicly-funded version of a way to pay your taxes. But because it's paper, it's been very expensive for the government to administer. This also incentivizes the IRS to keep this system updated each year.

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