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The information relevant for the vast majority of taxpayers, including the vast majority of people on HN, is already reported. What this is talking about is all the avenues that aren't open to most taxpayers which are used for tax evasion.

The more relevant part is actually funding the IRS at a level capable of doing its job after decades of systematic gutting. Oh, and if we could actually simplify the tax code and fix the data collection we wouldn't need as many resources in the first place.




Right.

Almost nobody employed should have to go through yearly hoops to file taxes. Heck, we probably could eliminate filing and refunds all together were the tax reporting system advanced.

That'd free the IRS to spend their time getting taxes from the people most likely to be dishonest about their taxes.


>and if we could actually simplify the tax code

not gonna happen. there's so many cushy bureaucrat jobs depending on an over-complex tax system that no one's going to touch it.


I'd say that the main value of an over-complex tax code is to provide a moat for larger companies.


Yeah, I don’t think government jobs are the main driver of a complex tax code, but rather lobbyists who help write loopholes from which their companies can benefit.


Not quite. The biggest lobbyists against it are Intuit and other tax prep companies.

The American myth of cushy bureaucrat jobs, and that the creation of such jobs is a major force in policy, is propaganda.




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