Yes, and they could still file those Schedule Cs against their automatic tax bill. Schedule C is totally separate, and could even be filed totally separately just like a business return.

Schedule C is not totally separate under current tax law.

1040-Schedule-C feeds into 1040-Schedule-1 (line 3), which feeds into 1040 (line 10).

But they easily could be. You fill out a Schedule C and it changes one line on your 1040. If the government filled out your 1040 for you, you'd do your Schedule C and 1, and then fill that into the one line on your pre-filled 1040.

Who says the current law has to stay as it is? If you're looking to simplify, simplify

hear hear, it's umimaginably dumb that we don't just do a flat tax on income over say 80k. feds can have 12%, state can have 8% and all this complexity can be burned down.

The problem with these "who says the current law has to stay as it is" discussions is that the more that is proposed to be changed, the lower the likelihood it will ever happen