Sometimes I think the most exceptional thing about the USA is exceptionalism.
Solutions to problems that are solved elsewhere are pushed back against, because "The USA is fundamentally different".
Other countries have states too. The UK even has a country with an entirely different legal system (Scots Law), but we still make our collection of income tax system simple.
A "complicated tax system" (if that is the root cause) is not something that is impossible to change. It is within the gift of the government(s) to change that.
The lack of appetite for change is the result of decades of lobbying for the status quo to continue.
A 1040 form, while intimidating looking, is trivial to fill out. Once you've done it a couple times, it takes about 5 minutes.
The only arcane bit is the law. The tax prep software knows which forms to use for which financial detail.
If the law were written clearly, there would be no need at all for any special software, you could fill out a couple csv files and send an email...
Even without the law, you are right, the actual flow of the tax prep software, for most people, is something a 16 year old could probably cobble together in an afternoon or two... however the problem then becomes how to provide a public service at low cost (to cover hosting/bandwidth costs) while govt funds are explicitly forbade to be used.
To me the solution is obvious - a third party non govt player that receives specific allotment of funding, no questions asked. However, see the rampant issues with lobbyists mentioned in the article...
We got pre-calculated returns as an alternative in the early 90's, by the time I got my first real job in the early 00's everyone used the pre-calculated one and just made changes as necessary. The first years I got my tax return in the mail and I think a few years I had to mail back a signed copy, but these days everything is digital and if you don't have to make any changes you don't have to do anything at all.
Back then you also had to physically deliver your tax deduction card to your employer so they could deduct tax correctly, but these days that is also digital and salary systems just fetches the current deduction card before running salary jobs every month.
xnorswap|4 months ago
Solutions to problems that are solved elsewhere are pushed back against, because "The USA is fundamentally different".
Other countries have states too. The UK even has a country with an entirely different legal system (Scots Law), but we still make our collection of income tax system simple.
A "complicated tax system" (if that is the root cause) is not something that is impossible to change. It is within the gift of the government(s) to change that.
The lack of appetite for change is the result of decades of lobbying for the status quo to continue.
smaudet|4 months ago
The only arcane bit is the law. The tax prep software knows which forms to use for which financial detail.
If the law were written clearly, there would be no need at all for any special software, you could fill out a couple csv files and send an email...
Even without the law, you are right, the actual flow of the tax prep software, for most people, is something a 16 year old could probably cobble together in an afternoon or two... however the problem then becomes how to provide a public service at low cost (to cover hosting/bandwidth costs) while govt funds are explicitly forbade to be used.
To me the solution is obvious - a third party non govt player that receives specific allotment of funding, no questions asked. However, see the rampant issues with lobbyists mentioned in the article...
graemep|4 months ago
That said, i think the system as a while is far too complicated. The application is simplified, but the rules are far too complex.
Thlom|4 months ago
Back then you also had to physically deliver your tax deduction card to your employer so they could deduct tax correctly, but these days that is also digital and salary systems just fetches the current deduction card before running salary jobs every month.