[test6554]

Things that need work necessarily cost money. Someone doing the work for free is not inherently sustainable. Profits motivate work to get done all on its own. Profits by definition is money over and above expenses. So it creates a perpetual sustainable mechanism. Competition motivates quality and efficient pricing (eventually).

Lobbying corrupts this a bit. However they are not lobbying to suppress private competitors only government-run competition that has no profit motive or competition. When the government runs it we still pay for it, except now people who don’t use it also pay. Also wealthy people pay a disproportionate share as compared to their use due to progressive income tax.

In theory anyone can start a company if they have a better or more efficient product or offering and get the profits instead.

Thats the rationale in a nutshell.

[randallsquared]

The usual argument is that taxes are already paying for the collection of data and calculation of amount, so why can't we just use the figure already calculated by default? This is most true for W2 employees without any uncommon circumstances, but there would seem to be a lot of people covered under that.

[the_snooze]

It's a political challenge, not a technical one. There are constituencies that reap concentrated benefits from the current system (e.g., tax-filing services) while imposing disperse costs on everyone else. Also, there are those who believe that the IRS is out to get them, so filing your own taxes is more trustworthy than going with a government-issued pre-filled default. And that going through the motions makes the pain of paying taxes more salient, so you're more likely to complain about it.

If you look at it as a practical or technical challenge, you're addressing the wrong question.

[thrance]

The 18F team was doing remarkable work devoid of all profit motives, before it was gutted by this admin. Americans are missing out on a lot of QoL improvements based purely on the false belief that private is always better than public. In France, they're rolling out a new system where your taxes are filed fully automatically, and you get a PDF in your emails with a one page recap, telling you to only contact the admin if you feel like something is wrong with the recap.

Your take is the classic economist's "it works in practice, but does it work in theory?". Obviously tax filing works better when it's maintained by the government. You're severly underestimating the harmfulness of profiteering monopolies lobbying against any improvements and buying out the competition. Also, look at DOGE, with all the ruckus they made they just couldn't find that many inefficiencies. And for such "simple" software projects as a tax-filing platform, I just don't buy that private is better than public.

[CodingJeebus]

> However they are not lobbying to suppress private competitors only government-run competition that has no profit motive or competition.

But there is a profit (or rather income generation) motive: taxation is what funds the government. Parceling this work to a private 3rd party means paying a bunch of salaries that are much higher than what government employees get paid, generating profit for the company that gets taken out of the tax revenue, which increases the cost of the service for end users or the government receiving income.

Some politicians argue that government is inept and wasteful, and sponsoring no-nonsense projects that reduce middlemen in this process interferes with that narrative. If you got into office screaming that the government is your enemy, you’re not going to support projects that make it easier for citizens to interact with the government.

[sofixa]

> Someone doing the work for free is not inherently sustainable

This does not apply to government / public work that has to be done anyways. Nor to any public service in general for that matter.

[rtkwe]

Most people's taxes don't actually need any real work 87+% just claim the federal deduction on there taxes these days.

[wredcoll]

It seems worth while to emphasize that, while these are indeed arguments that are made, they're not actually true.