The whole idea is the IRS would prefill all the forms with all the information they know and you'd login and add anything that's missing. 80% of taxpayers would just confirm and hit submit, the ones who need to add stuff know who they are. You can always hire someone to do it for you too.

Most people already claim the standard deduction and with the new tax reform 95%+ of tax returns are going to claim the standard deduction this year. As part of the hypothetical bill could also require more organizations (charities, local governments) to report to the IRS.

I have business income the IRS doesn't know a thing about before I fill out my schedule c, but prefilled forms for all the stuff they DO know about would still be awesome and super helpful.

Starting for 2018 taxes, the standard deduction was doubled to $12,000 for a single filer and $24,000 for a married couple. Combine that with no longer being able to deduct state income taxes and there will be fewer people than ever actually itemizing deductions this year.

The state and local income tax deduction was capped, but not abolished.

In the countries where the system is place, you get to check the pre-made filing and add missing deductions.

Doesn't the bank send the same tax documents to the IRS as they send to you? (Mortgage interest is a commonly itemized deduction.)

Itemized deductions could be a "dispute" item, where you would login, switch from Standard to Itemized, then itemize your deductions. It could possibly recall this setting, and even the deductions, from the previous year's input.

For some, yes. However, in some cases, no. For example, I have a sole proprietor with a lot of 'business expenses' (web hosting, software licenses, etc.) Those get deducted.

It would be nice to get this streamlined! taxes are such a chore.

Too bad there's a multi billion dollar industry - tax preparation and accounting - supported by taxes. It will never happen.

It wouldn’t be meant to cover every case. But most people have simple taxes - they receive an income from a job and investments that are already reported and thier only deductions are charity, home mortgage, state taxes and dependent (or did that change this year?)

Cost basis accounting/tracking for investments was only required for covered securities starting in 2010 to 2013, depending on the type of security involved.

They could. I envision a one time use token for each charity you give to. You give the charity the one time use token issues by the government, and they report your donation directly to the government.

Financial institutions and other companies already give the government a copy of the form they give you for self employment income and taxable financial transactions.

The states also report state taxes and property taxes(?).

This would cover most taxpayers. If you have anything more complicated you would have to add it. This would also make enforcement easier, it could for the most part be automated.

Why one time? Why can't I get an "alternate" IDs from the IRS where the IRS knows the "real" number it's associated with, and provide the charity with that?

Or heck, let me just tell the charity my email address, and then tell the IRS that all the donations for that email should be credited to me. People who want more privacy can "just" sign up for bespoke email addresses.

One time use token for every charity. Much like one time use tokens that banks issue when you use Apple Pay/Google Pay (?)