Most countries with less political corruption than the US send every taxpayer a pre-completed return. The IRS already has your W-2, banking and investing information. They could easily populate the proper tax forms with the info and send it to you. If you don’t have any changes, you’d just sign it and be done. The only people that would need to file are those doing itemized deductions or with more complex financial situations.
That means that Congress still hasn’t passed one of the Biden administration’s most important, if least sexy, spending priorities: a budget increase for the IRS.
Last year, the administration proposed an $80 billion funding boost to the agency over 10 years as part of its “American Families Plan,” an increase of more than 50 percent to the agency’s normal budget. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this would increase revenue by $207 billion, paying for the IRS spending while producing $127 billion to spend paying down the deficit or on other priorities. The Biden team is more optimistic, estimating that could raise nearly $700 billion, paying for itself nine times over.
The IRS needs to spend it’s limited resources on high-dollar tax cheats rather than chasing single mothers on food stamps.
Shame on you, you forget to mention the taxes are much higher in those countries and they collect.
Even when you are not working.
Doesn’t matter. The IRS already has all your info. Fewer than 15% of taxpayers itemize income. The IRS should and easily could send you a tax statement, which you could either sign or amend. For the vast majority of Americans this would be a welcome simplification.
The only reason this isn’t done is political corruption.
Most countries with less political corruption than the US send every taxpayer a pre-completed return. The IRS already has your W-2, banking and investing information. They could easily populate the proper tax forms with the info and send it to you. If you don’t have any changes, you’d just sign it and be done. The only people that would need to file are those doing itemized deductions or with more complex financial situations.
As an American living abroad, I’ve filed taxes in 3 other countries: France, Singapore, Luxembourg. They are all insanely easier than American taxes. They all end up being 3-5 pages.