[_9omd]

It just occurred to me, there may be a reason they don't tell you that I hadn't considered before. If they tell you exactly what income they do know about, then they're implicitly providing information about your income they don't know about. This might make people with harder to trace income less likely to pay taxes on it, as they have some upfront assurance that they won't get in trouble. In some ways it could be seen analogous to a common rule of negotiating, which is to get the other party to say a number first. This allows the IRS to prevent lowballing the tax number, and if the person comes in with a low number, they can still "negotiate" it up.

I don't know, just a theory. I still think the whole complicated process is stupid and they should just give you a number at the end of the year.

[jdeibele]

I think overall the IRS not providing the information is driven more by tax preparer lobbyists and anti-tax crusaders (like Grover Norquist). The tax preparers want the revenue and the crusaders want people to be irritated by the process.

I did have basically the same thought as you, that not showing you the info means you're tempted to hide it. However, even if somebody is late reporting the info to the IRS, you're still liable. And the opportunity to hide income is gradually being reduced: eBay is sending 1099s [0] if you sell enough there, so is Amazon [1] and even Facebook Marketplace [2] for sales through them (as opposed to meeting in person and using cash).

If people use Venmo or Zelle, that's trackable. Maybe the IRS isn't using it today but some day.

[0] https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/ebay... [1] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/external... [2] https://www.facebook.com/business/help/970063599855691?id=54...

[sidewndr46]

That sounds great, except I'm not buying a car. When I buy a car, the guy obviously has an incentive to hide the actual price. Rather ironically, the government of the state I live in mandates this "dealer" practice.

But the IRS is the government. It isn't here to make money. They aren't supposed to be working against the citizens.

[xwolfi]

I paid taxes in France and Hong Kong. The French taxes are taken at source from your salary and you touch them up. In Hong Kong, it's a simple form, and they trust you.

France is only 70M people and HK makes a tax profit every year with 8M people, sure. We re not the strong and beautiful United States, but if us shithole countries can tell people an estimate they can touch up, the US can as well Im sure.

I thought before that the US was some sort of capital friendly country until I made a franco american friend who had to pay taxes there and Hong Kong. He had a guy hired and it seemed a complete nightmare. He worked as a low level programmer there for 3 years 15 years ago and nothing else. Still needs an accountant to do his taxes :s

[grouchomarx]

>We re not the strong and beautiful United States, but if us shithole countries can tell people an estimate they can touch up, the US can as well Im sure.

you may have HN confused for reddit, you'll find very little american patriotism here

[black_puppydog]

Ahem... it just manifests very differently. But indeed, it is very rarely of the blatant nature hinted in GP's comment.