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My understanding is that they replaced the 1040/1040EZ split with a simplified Form 1040+Schedules 1/2/3, so instead of getting a short form (which only applied to a limited set of situations) or a long form, you always get a shorter one, plus only the addenda needed for your situation.

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I assume one issue was that you could start filling out an EZ only to discover that there was something requiring you to start over with a 1040.

There was a push in 2017 to make filing taxes more miserable (it was an explicit goal of Trump).

That was also the year when they intentionally broke the withholding calculations so that people end up owing a big unpredictable amount of money when they file, are more likely to be fined for it, etc.

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