On one side, civil society groups this week launched a coalition to promote the move toward a government-run free-file program. On the other, tax preparation firms like Intuit and H&R Block have been pouring millions into lobbying to try to stop the idea cold.
This has been a long time coming, maybe we'll get to the point like other countries where the government already knows what you owe or are owed.
Realistically what will probably happen is this gets gutted immediately the moment we get new Repub pres.
Are there that many self employed? Most other countries seem to handle this the, imo, sensible way, where employees are auto-taxed, and the self employed file their own.
100% agreed, the complications are part of the equation but shouldn't stop us from making a basic system that works for most people. As long as there's a way to manually enter and categorize exceptions in the form of assets, extra income, investments, etc it would work for almost everyone.