This whole system stinks. The overly complicated tax code, the sleazy corporations making tons of money on it, the entrenched politicians and bureacrats who make a living on it, etc.
> Most of those states don’t tax income at the state level, but the four that do...will guide participants to a state-supported tool that they can use to submit their state returns.
Which means it's _more_ incomplete in states with income tax (federal return through IRS pilot, state return through a state system) than in states without income tax (just federal IRS pilot return).
Although if the IRS is gonna audit when I under pay, they technically already know how much I owe. Why not just tell me? Reckon it's since people also over pay, and there's no refunds for doing that.
Sure there are. I've gotten refunds from the IRS when I made a mistake on my tax return and overpaid.
The vast majority of people don't need to file taxes but even then it somehow still comes out wrong and you occasionally get a refund.
It’s crazy stuff like this that means the IRS can’t really calculate your taxes for you.
But as I wrote, I think things are mostly pretty good these days. But who knows with things like RSUs you have limited visibility into.
Instead, it’s because they want to make sure you were truthful in what you reported, and may have some reason to believe you were not. Often, they don’t know how much you owe in this case.
So not only can they do it for you, they can do it better!