Dear Internal Revenue Service,
The US government may have misunderstood me. When I, along with the rest of the country鈥檚 long-suffering taxpayers, asked for a simpler tax filing process, I didn鈥檛 mean that Congress should cut my ability to deduct state and local tax payments from my taxable income, as enacted late last year. No, I welcome that kind of complexity 鈥� the money-saving kind.
I meant the unwelcome complexity that gives the nation a headache on Tax Day.
Advertisement
Here is a typical scenario, which I have experienced more than once. Throughout the year, your agency receives income reporting forms from employers and other financial entities. I get my tax forms early the following year. I gather up these forms, sit down with a calculator and attempt to figure out my taxes. I send in my return later than I had hoped. A few months later, you send me a letter saying that I have erred: I owe more in tax than I had calculated. Or else I am entitled to a bigger refund than I had calculated. (Thank you for that, by the way.) I go through all my paperwork again and either dispute the adjustment or accede.
Many firms sell software and services that Americans use to navigate the thicket, and these companies not only welcome聽such tax complexity, but also work to perpetuate it. For example, that one, Intuit, successfully lobbied against proposals that would allow many taxpayers to file pre-filled returns for free.
So I write to request your assistance to overturn this situation. A pre-filled return would fix the perverse redundancy of tax filing in this country.
What鈥檚 wrong is all the extra work. You have the information already. There is an entire extra cycle in which I figure out what you already know. I may not be willing to take the IRS at its word, but I would gladly welcome the assistance of a pre-filled tax return, which I could adjust or dispute the first go-round rather than the second. I suspect the IRS wouldn鈥檛 mind the added convenience either.
: 鈥淲e envision a system where more than half of us would not even have to fill out a return. We call it the return-free system, and it would be totally voluntary. If you decided to participate, you would automatically receive your refund or a letter explaining any additional tax you owe. Should you disagree with this figure, you would be free to fill out your taxes using the regular form. We believe most Americans would go from the long form or the short form to no form.鈥�
This doesn鈥檛 have to be a matter of economic debate. Switching to pre-filled returns could be revenue-neutral, and taxpayers could opt-out if they were uncomfortable. Yet government-prepared tax returns are still just a dream. , 80 per cent of taxpayers buy software or otherwise pay a firm to do the work that the IRS is already doing and which could be the basis of pre-filled returns. So while it makes sense that the middlemen want to hold on to the over-elaborate filing system and the over-elaborate tax code, you and I, IRS, would both be happier were the redundancies eliminated.
Let us walk hand in hand to cut out those who profit from our mutual inconvenience and return to the good old-fashioned direct antagonism between citizen and tax collector.
Yours in death and taxes 鈥� David
