Roll Call: As GOP Tax Overhaul Shapes Up, Democrats Push to End the Tax Return

Groups like Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, which advocates a flat tax, have also opposed return-free filing, saying it would allow the IRS to “intimidate” taxpayers into paying whatever is on the pre-filled return.

Richard Phillips, a senior policy analyst at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said anti-tax organizations also want people to find doing taxes burdensome. He said their calculation is “if people spend hours doing taxes, it will make them hate taxes and contribute to their anti-tax agenda.”

Phillips said polling shows the biggest problem people have with taxes is not how much they’re paying, but in filing returns: “They think the system is complicated, it’s inconvenient and time-consuming.”

As a smaller step, the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent office within the IRS, formed to protect taxpayer rights, has called for the existing “free file” system, that works with private companies, to end and instead let taxpayers file directly with the IRS.

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