Every time HN discussion about US taxes comes, I imagine a sizeable group of users from developed country watch in amusement the craziness that the IRS makes its taxpayers go through to charge them money.
I know in Mexico and Chile everything is highly automated. In Mexico 50%+ of working class dont have to do ANYTHING, as whatever tax stuff needed is submitted by their employer.
Come on US... that we in Mexico have better automation for this is inconceivable. We look up to you for lots of things, particularly technology.
The US would need to vastly simply the tax code - remove all the various tax breaks for dependents/spouses, remove the progressive taxation scale, etc. - before it could be successfully automated.
With all of that, I just get into SAT page, ask it to fill up everything with the data they already collected, review it, and agree on the $$$ they will give me back (yay mortage!).
It CAN be that simple. that's what systems are for: to automate complex processes. Computers excellent at it.
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