[StephenCanis]

I think the general idea would be for the IRS to provide you with the completed tax return. This should be sufficient for a vast majority of people who only earn employment income.

You would then review the return and could update/file a return if you have additional deductions or business income that would not otherwise be reported to the IRS.

I believe the UK and some other European countries already have this system.

[Twirrim]

The UK tends to do its tax incentives a different way.

The government favours them as subsidies at point of purchase, rather than something you do at the end of the year. That actually works out a lot nicer as a tax payer, as you don't need to have the full amount of money up-front, and also means you're way less likely to miss out on some of them.

[adwww]

For maybe 90% of UK employees you don't need to file any kind of tax return, your employer handles all that for you.

If you do have some uncomplicated deductions (eg. you are a higher rate tax payer and have made large donations to charity, or have business expenses which were not paid by your employer) you can phone the tax office or ammend them online.

Only those in more complicated situtations need to file anything, which most people do through the tax office's website.