Millions of Americans mess up their taxes, but a new law will help

H.R.998 - Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help Act - https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/998

Sounds like a very good idea. I never got a math error notice but I've gotten a few that were fundamentally a case of transposed digits--and it was not one bit clear. You didn't report interest from ABC--but looking at my return it clearly shows interest from ABC. It would have been much easier if they said their files show more interest from ABC than you are reporting.

Taxes in the US are unnecessarily stressful. I remember going to H&R Block and being sent home to find some piece of supporting documentation because it was “really important”. I turned the whole apartment upside down but wasn’t able to find it. Went back to the tax preparer in a state of high anxiety. When I asked what would happen if I couldn’t find the document and was told the impact on the final assessment could be as high as $80. Would have gladly spent 10x that to avoid the stress.

> to accurately prepopulate tax returns for around 45% of Americans. (Those other countries have much simpler tax codes than we do.)

One should note that the cited study quotes the 45% from a 1992 study. These days, with gig economy and quasi-self-employment, that number is probably higher since you don't have an employer who reports your income for you.

Still, here in Australia, where we have the return-free tax system, adding what you earned from your various gig jobs isn't too hard: you add that as items to the web form: 'I made 15,123 from Uber Eats'. That just gets added to your overall return. I don't see how that's so hard compared to the US?

In the states if you are a contractor there are tons of things that you can deduct from your taxable income. So “figuring out how much you should be taxed” is after those deductions.

If uber paid you $15123 but you:

Just bought a new bike bc your other was stolen

You paid $1200 for insurance

You bought a helmet and cold weather clothes etc etc.

Those things reduce your taxable income.

Yes, same in Australia. Keep receipts and add the cost to the web form.

They have simplified it nicely, though: if you work from home you can claim a per-hour deduction so you don't have to do the math of wear-and-tear, electricity, internet etc. I think it was $0.6 per hour?

I think that's common in most places. What's different in the US is that the IRS forces you to proactively provide a lot more information about it, though. I have a rental property and need to enter the same information about the same income and expenses on three different forms, breaking it down in different ways. It's tedious and error-prone, and I guess the philosophy is that it's easier to spot fraud if the numbers on all the different forms don't align right.

Dare one ask where all of the AI proponents are when the subjects of public budgeting and taxation arise?

> Those other countries have much simpler tax codes than we do

All German readers spew out their drink in disbelief - Pardon what?