Slashdot Mirror
Why the IRS Should Automatically Fill In Returns With What It Knows
theodp writes "An article in the NY Times begins, 'In the digital age, filing income tax returns should be a snap. Important data from employers and financial institutions has already been sent to government computers. Yet taxpayers are still required to perform the chore of preparing a return from scratch, in many cases paying a software company for the privilege.' Why, if your needs are simple, can't you just download forms pre-filled with whatever data the IRS has received about you, make any necessary adjustments, and automatically get the IRS calculation of your taxes? Sounds reasonable, but the IRS rejected the President's proposal to give taxpayers the option to do so as 'not feasible at this time' due to delays in the receipt of W-2 and 1099 data. However, California managed to offer a pre-filled state tax return, which cost only 34 cents to process compared to $2.59 to process a traditional paper return. Despite the success of the pilot, meager funds have been allotted for the program due to the strength of its political opponents — 'principally, Intuit' — according to the state controller. Intuit argues it would be a 'conflict of interest for government to be both tax collector and tax preparer.'"
I'll post here the same scenario I email to Stross -- and *damn* that story made it up fast; @NYTimes just tweeted it like 20 minutes ago; did we roto-root the pipeline?
If you're the government, and you know you don't have to take responsibility for the results (since the law says they don't; it's all on the taxpayer), don't you think you're gonna err on the high side?
Rebate form return percentages (I think they plan on 40% coming back in) prove that lots of people are just going to take your word for it -- and if you don't think that's a reasonable assumption, you're probably a slashdotter. Or some other sort of geek. Nerdview is great.
And if people *do* correct the amount down, a lot of them probably won't say anything about it, on the theory that they got away with something, and don't want to queer the pitch, so aggregating data on how *often* the IRS gets away with it is less likely.
www.fairtax.org, people. If there's *no* IRS, this stuff's all not a problem.
Just sayin'
In the US, we do whatever rich special interests tell us to do. Look at the health care industry, and still reform is apparently about to fail. It's disgusting.
Everybody's hot and bothered about the HOW, begging the question of the LEGITIMACY of taxes in the first place.
Obligatory Pynchon quote: "“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.”
Set your phasers on "funky"!