(fwd) What the IRS is up to

[Urban Nilsson]

> But I am an excellent advocate of return-free filing.  We know
> everything about you that we need to know.  Your employer tells us
> everything about you that we need to know.  Your activity records on
> your credit cards tell us everything about you that we need to know.
> Through interface with Social Security, with the DMV, with your banking
> institutions, we really have a lot of information, so why would you, at
> the end of the year or on April 15th, today, do we ask the post office
> to encumber themselves with massive numbers of people out there,
> picking up pieves of paper that you are required to file?
>  ... We could literally file a return for you.  This is the future
> that we'd like to go to."
> 
> Lest there be any doubt, she was entirely serious, and she clearly
> expected that that we'd all think this is as wonderful as she does.
> 
> Regards,
> John Levine, johnl at iecc.com, jlevine at delphi.com, 1037498 at mcimail.com

If anyone is interested, this is how it is done here in Sweden today. Almost,
anyway. You get a single paper where you put an X in the square which
says 'The reports that I've got (from your employer, bank etc.) are
correct' and then you sign it at the bottom. That's it.

Is this what you are afraid of? It most probably *will* happen to you.

(There are ofcourse exceptions to this, if you have a business, or
have income from other sources etc.) The fact is, though, that the
majority of us do use this simplified tax return.

Urban Nilsson                | Use 'finger' for PGP2.3a public key.
d7urban at dtek.chalmers.se     |------------------------------------------
Chalmers University of Tech. |Lacking the qualities associated with being
Gothenburg, Sweden           |a female assassin: Assassinessnessless