Sound nice except for the being frozen part :-)
The IRS could do our taxes as well if there weren't 500,000 special interest exceptions to everything.
The IRS could do our taxes as well if there weren't 500,000 special interest exceptions to everything.
The IRS could prepare a fairly reasonable tax return, and let people modify it for their deductions or unreported income. But for most people, all their income is reported, along with mortgage info.
If only the American public actually understood the value of paying someone to have responsibilities rather than paying them to do work. But that might entail paying people to do their taxes, get an educations, vote, obey the law, etc. Real communism stuff!
Taxes should be a one page affair, yet as always politicians are adept at dividing us, boxing us, and generally punishing us when we don't do as we are told. The IRS is a political weapon more often than not.
As a typical corporate drone with a house how complex should my taxes be? I do the correct deductions throughout the year yet I never have a near zero difference.
Yes, for nearly everyone.
In fact, the IRS already does this -- your employer, bank, etc have already reported all of the biggest items to the IRS. They know what your tax bill will look like before you even crack open the 1040 instructions. Then when you file they'll compare what you send via the baseline and flag anything that has a discrepancy in that taxpayer's favor.
The IRS could easily let you start with the baseline and just say "OK, sounds good" or "actually, I've itemized my deductions, here is what I think the number should be". In fact the IRS wants to do that since it would be less work for them overall. Congress won't never let them though.
To bring it back to the original article, this is also why expats should never expect tax relief. The tax preparation industry would lose millions of customers.
http://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-maker-linked-to-g...
All this foaming at the mouth and finger pointing only makes things worse.
The IRS should be able to prefill all of your taxes for you, and allow you to click Submit. But you should be able to change/add info, if you have supporting documentation. There is no reason Intuit and other businesses should need to exist to provide tax preparation services.