[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.