News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The IRS has all our tax data. Why doesn't its new website use it?. Parent comment

Re:The IRS has all our tax data. Why doesn't its new website... by dghlsakjg on Monday February 05, 2024 @12:20AM (#39257630)
1. Politics. Funding the IRS sufficiently is, sadly, controversial. Additionally, tax filing is a multi-billion dollar industry, and they lobby politicians very heavily to make it hard to file taxes.

2. The IRS doesn't have everything, it has about 90% of what the average person needs to file taxes. Most people could answer about 5-10 simple questions and the IRS would have everything they need (this is basically how tax filing firms/software get it done after you give them all of the information that the IRS already has). A minority have more complex tax situations, but these people likely already have a personal accountant, or are running a business.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The IRS has all our tax data. Why doesn't its new website... by jjav on Monday February 05, 2024 @03:50AM (#39258807)
> The IRS doesn't have everything, it has about 90% of what the average person needs to file taxes.

Well, not quite. The IRS knows 100% of what the average person is going to put in their tax return. So just automate that.

There is a small percentage of people with more complex tax situations. Yes, they will need to file a tax return. Percentage-wise, it is very few people.

[ Parent | on HN ]