[economusty]

What you describe is only half the process, they don't know about your expenses and deductions, which is where most of the work is when preparing the tax return. Do you file your own taxes and do you itemize? It's not something I want the government to do for me.

[yardie]

Here we go again. Expenses and deductions don't apply to most tax filers. There is no reason to keep a broken system in place for the benefit of 10%.

If there are deductions to be made we can do the same as other modern countries, have the taxpayer fill in an amendment and recalculate the proper amount.

[wpietri]

Exactly. The standard deduction in the US recently doubled in size. That covers a lot of people. We could cover even more if the IRS sent you an email in January and said, "We expect your refund to be $X. If you think you have more than $12k in deductible expenses, click here to tell us about them."

People for whom that's not enough can still go through the whole ritual.

[jjoonathan]

Then do it yourself. Most people, however, don't game the system and would benefit from removing rent-seeking barnacles from the "no games" path.

[mindslight]

TBF, deductions aren't "gaming the system", but rather a very limited form of what companies get to do for all of their expenses. I agree they're a pain in the ass and much nicer to not do personally, but I don't see much of an alternative (besides not itemizing). But really if you want to make the tax code more fair, the restrictions on individual deductions for transportation, housing, food, etc should be eliminated. Those expenses are in fact required for you to earn your income.

[dls2016]

In 2019, 87% of people took the standard deduction.