[klausa]

This argument could be put in a museum as a perfect illustration of the "Perfect is the enemy of good" maxim.

Would just relying on the information from your employers cover all possible edge-cases? No.

Would it dramatically simplify the process for (tens?) millions of people? Absolutely.

[terminalshort]

The info that the IRS has from your employer is maybe 5 boxes on your return. Literally takes a few minutes to take the info from your w-2 and put it on a 1040.

[wildzzz]

If it's so easy, why is the IRS unable to do that? Why must I retype all of the information that they already have? If there's anything they don't have, I have zero issue tying that in myself.

[Amezarak]

The number and type of people living in your household is not an edge case. It applies to almost everyone, has huge tax impacts, and the IRS doesn’t know.

[array_key_first]

The argument is that you don't need a third party like Intuit to get this information. The IRS could get it themselves - they choose not to.

[ffffgov]

They can’t. Because IRS IT has been starved, beaten and abused for 20 years. If they had the resources and leadership, all of this could be possible via MOUs and better data access/normalization from the mainframes.

[array_key_first]

I agree, but IMO this is a choice. Not a fact of life.