[mock-possum]

Marriage and birth are both a matter of public record, are they not? The government wouldn’t need magic to know those things, when that information is registered with the government. Employers could also report work situations to the government, as could mortgage companies. If the details of your mortgage debt is readily available to agencies that determine your credit score, why should it not be available to the government as well?

It would be a lot easier in most cases then you’re making it out to be - and even in exceptional cases, you would only have to address those exceptions, and skip the drudgery of regurgitating all the information the government could have easily found for itself.

[jandrewrogers]

Marriage and birth, like most things in an Americans life, are registered with the individual State governments since that power rests with the State. The Federal government has no jurisdiction over those matters and there is no implication that they would know. It becomes even more complicated when things like birth and marriage happen outside the US.

The details of mortgage debt are reported to the IRS on a standard form already.

[__derek__]

> the details of your mortgage debt

This is already reported to the IRS by servicers via Form 1098.[1]

[1]: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1098

[turdprincess]

I think a lot of people would object to a system that reported every detail of your life to the IRS.

[mitthrowaway2]

So presently the government gives you a birth certificate for your baby, and you go to the government to apply for a marriage license, but you are worried that the government might find out you've married and had a baby? You want to have to do extra paperwork to avoid accidentally committing tax fraud?

[sofixa]

If you have to report every detail to them anyways, what exactly changes besides making it easier?