"The IRS already has all of the information needed to process these returns"
Almost. They don't have filing status (married/single/etc.) and number of dependents. Unfortunately, those affect your tax rate, so the tax return can't be calculated without it.
If you're a W2 employee, they already have that information. It's on the W4 form that you fill out when you start a job, so that they can deduct the right amount from each paycheck.
Actually the data you put on the W4 doesn't have to have anything to do with your actual status. Moreover, your status may have changed since you last updated your W4.
Just in case you are being sarcastic, it is completely legitimate to put down a large number of exemptions if you know your tax liability will be very low for other reasons, and you want your employer to withhold less money.
In fact you should tune the process - if last year you had a large refund, then this year add more exemptions till your refund is as small as you can make it. (Technically you can go over if you want, and be required to pay, most most people don't like that.)
The easiest way to calculate it is do last years return with varying numbers of exemptions and compare the tax liability number (not the final number which includes payments). Use the real return as a baseline, then keep adding exemptions till the increase in the liability matches your refund, then use that number on the W-9. Perhaps that number minus one.
This isn't hard to handle: you send out the prefilled form with whatever you filed last year, and if you got married/got divorced/had a kid/changed your filing status you fill out the full form.
Almost. They don't have filing status (married/single/etc.) and number of dependents. Unfortunately, those affect your tax rate, so the tax return can't be calculated without it.