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Comment by ac29 | Hacker News Reader

And that's probably the main reason it isnt done. The IRS assumes nearly no one would report extra taxable income if they came out and said all of the things they already knew (and by implication, dont know).

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Well I think that depends on what is being provided, most suggestions I've seen only talk about cover the simple case of some W-2s and other income sources already reported to the government and taking the standard deduction. If that's the case then the government doesn't _have_ to provide everything it knows, it would be on you to know if you have income that wasn't already reported to the government and file yourself, and it would be the same as now in that you don't know if they'll find out about your other income.

But also, there's still the risk of getting audited either way. Just because they apparently don't know about some income _now_ doesn't mean they'll never figure it out later.

Right. I was assuming most people would choose the lower of whatever the IRS said or their calculations showed. And that's fine, presumably that would be taken into account on the government side in order to get enough money.

It's not done for two reasons:

1) The tax software industry 2) Libertarian/far right groups want to make it hard for you to pay your taxes.

Here's a Planet Money episode talking about this: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/03/709656642/epis...

Here we go. American exceptionalism again. No surprise here. It isn’t done because your government is stupid and corrupt. Look at the myriad other examples of this happening in other countries.

Thanks. Glad to have this pat and reductive answer to all of our problems.

Right? Now that you know the answer, apply it to every problem where « but for us It’s different »

Gun control, ISP prices & availability, public transportation and in particular long range trains are the top of the list of those subjects.

At first it’s fun, then it’s anoying, then it’s sad.

Thougt & prayers ! It will get better, or at least you will know intrinsically that you exhausted all of the 1 solutions.

> Gun control

Sometimes the US truly is exceptional -- name another country that has more guns than people and, critically, enshrines private ownership of guns in its constitution.

> enshrines private ownership of guns in its constitution.

Czechia, Guatemala, Mexico, Phillipines, Ukraine, Yemen.

You are right, it’s truly unique. Nothing else that worked elsewhere will work. Thought and prayers!

"It isn't done" isn't responsive to this article about how it is being done.

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