So, you could give everyone a different tax year. The forms already allow you to have a different tax year, though few people make use of that (I have no idea what qualifies people to have a different fiscal year, it might just be for companies, I don't know).

Of course, this would be a giant mess because all the other entities that are tied to the standard tax year, namely everyone who communicates info to the IRS about you and files 1099-xyz forms about you and sends copies to you: your employer, your bank, your IRA/401k company, etc. I don't see how it'd be workable at all.

Here's what would work much better: simplify the tax code (eliminating a lot of deductions), and make filing automatic for regular W-2 wage-earners, like they do in western European nations, where they just send you a pre-filled form, you make any corrections to it (to account for income they didn't know about), and then send it back if there's changes (otherwise they just go with what they already know about you). We don't do this in the US because we're corrupt: the tax-filing companies have bought off the politicians so they won't let the IRS do this.

It's mostly for businesses (which includes individual tax payers as sole proprietorships), and the things looked to for non-automatic approvals are things like what your actual cycle of business is like. (For individual tax payers, the only automatically allowed changes are, IIRC, change back to a calendar year as tax yesr and changes to align with a spouses tax year with certain conditions.)

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/small-business-taxes/s-...