[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-1-en-105":3,"doc-seo-302316-105":53,"doc-detail-302316-en":126},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,14,19,24,29,34,39,44,49],{"id":8,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":11,"show_sort_weight":12,"slug":13},11,1,"Template","Presentations",90,"presentations",{"id":15,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":16,"show_sort_weight":17,"slug":18},12,"Resumes",80,"resumes",{"id":20,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":21,"show_sort_weight":22,"slug":23},14,"Invoices",70,"invoices",{"id":25,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":26,"show_sort_weight":27,"slug":28},15,"Posters",60,"posters",{"id":30,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":31,"show_sort_weight":32,"slug":33},16,"Social Media",50,"social-media",{"id":35,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":36,"show_sort_weight":37,"slug":38},17,"Forms",40,"forms",{"id":40,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":41,"show_sort_weight":42,"slug":43},18,"Letters",30,"letters",{"id":45,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":46,"show_sort_weight":47,"slug":48},21,"Paper Templates",5,"papers-templates",{"id":50,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":51,"show_sort_weight":4,"slug":52},158,"General","general-158",{"code":4,"msg":54,"data":55},"ok",{"site_id":56,"language":57,"slug":58,"title":59,"keywords":60,"description":61,"schema_data":62,"social_meta":119,"head_meta":121,"extra_data":123,"updated_unix":125},105,"en","the-simple-return-reducing-americas-tax-burden-through-return-free-filing","The Simple Return - Reducing America’s Tax Burden Through Return-Free Filing","","The paper analyzes the high compliance costs of federal income taxation, especially for middle-class taxpayers with simple situations, and shows those costs are regressive relative to income. It proposes the “Simple Return,” a voluntary filing system that uses employer and bank data to prefill returns for eligible taxpayers. The approach could save significant time and reduce preparation fees, with potential benefits including fewer filing errors and lower administrative burden.",{"@graph":63,"@context":118},[64,80,101],{"@type":65,"itemListElement":66},"BreadcrumbList",[67,71,74,77],{"item":68,"name":69,"@type":70,"position":9},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":72,"name":10,"@type":70,"position":73},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/",2,{"item":75,"name":41,"@type":70,"position":76},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/letters/",3,{"item":78,"name":59,"@type":70,"position":79},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/the-simple-return-reducing-americas-tax-burden-through-return-free-filing/302316/",4,{"url":78,"name":59,"@type":81,"image":82,"author":87,"headline":59,"publisher":90,"fileFormat":93,"inLanguage":57,"description":61,"dateModified":94,"datePublished":95,"encodingFormat":93,"isAccessibleForFree":96,"interactionStatistic":97},"DigitalDocument",{"url":83,"@type":84,"width":85,"height":86},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-simple-return-reducing-americas-tax-burden-through-return-free-filing/302316.png","ImageObject",442,249,{"name":88,"@type":89},"Jordan Avery","Person",{"url":68,"name":91,"@type":92},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-27","2026-09-19",true,{"@type":98,"interactionType":99,"userInteractionCount":9},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":100},"ViewAction",{"@type":102,"mainEntity":103},"FAQPage",[104,110,114],{"name":105,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":107},"What problem does the paper address about federal income tax compliance?","Question",{"text":108,"@type":109},"It argues that complying with federal income tax requirements imposes large burdens, especially on middle-class taxpayers with simple tax situations, and that these costs are regressive.","Answer",{"name":111,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What is the “Simple Return” program?",{"text":113,"@type":109},"It is a voluntary return-filing approach that pulls income information directly from employers and banks and sends eligible taxpayers a prefilled return.",{"name":115,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How would the Simple Return reduce the tax burden for eligible taxpayers?",{"text":117,"@type":109},"By shifting most data gathering into systems the IRS can already access, eligible filers would only check figures, sign, and submit, saving time and reducing preparation fees.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":78,"og:type":120,"og:title":59,"og:site_name":91,"og:description":61},"article",{"robots":122,"canonical":78},"index,follow",{"doc_id":124,"site_id":56},302316,1790469819,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":127},{"doc_id":124,"user_id":128,"nickname":88,"user_avatar":129,"doc_module":9,"category_id":40,"category_name":41,"doc_title":59,"doc_description":61,"doc_content":130,"file_id":131,"file_url":132,"file_type":133,"file_size":134,"view_count":73,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":9,"is_downloadable":9,"audit_status":9,"page_count":135,"language":136,"language_code":57,"site_id":56,"html_lang":57,"table_of_contents":137,"faqs":138,"seo_title":139,"seo_description":61,"update_tm":140,"read_time":8},1099523882367,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","THE  \nHAMILTON  \nPROJECT  \nAdvancing Opportunity, Prosperity and Growth  \n|  |  |  |  |  |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n|  |  | D I S C U S S I O N PA P E R 2 0 0 6-\u003Cbr>Austan G | 0 4 J U LY 2 0 0 6\u003Cbr>oolsbee |  |\n|  |  |  |  |  |\n|  | The ‘Sim | ple Ret | urn’: |  |\n|  | Reducing | America’s T | ax Burden |  |\n|  | Through R | eturn-Free | Filing |  |\n|  |  |  |  |  |\n\nThe Brookings Institution  \nThe Hamilton Project seeks to advance America’s promise of opportunity, prosperity, and growth. The Project’s economic strategy reflects a judgment that long-term prosperity is best achieved by making economic growth broad-based, by enhancing individual economic security, and by embracing a role for effective government in making needed public investments. Our strategy—strikingly different from the theories driving current economic policy—calls for fiscal discipline and for increased public investment in key growthenhancing areas. The Project will put forward innovative policy ideas from leading economic thinkers throughout the United States—ideas based on experience and evidence, not ideology and doctrine—to introduce new, sometimes controversial, policy options into the national debate with the goal of improving our country’s economic policy.  \nThe Project is named after Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first treasury secretary, who laid the foundation for the modern American economy. Consistent with the guiding principles of the Project, Hamilton stood for sound fiscal policy, believed that broad-based opportunity for advancement would drive American economic growth, and recognized that “prudent aids and encouragements on the part of government” are necessary to enhance and guide market forces.  \nTHE  \nHAMILTON  \nPROJECT  \nTHE  \nHAMILTON  \nPROJECT  \nThe Simple Return: Reducing America’s Tax Burden Through Return-Free Filing  \nAustan Goolsbee  \nUniversity of Chicago, Graduate School of Business, American Bar Foundation and National Bureau of Economic Research  \nThe Brookings Institution  \nJ U LY 2 0 0 6  \nAbstract  \nThe costs of complying with federal income tax requirements are large, and are particularly unwelcome to many middle-class taxpayers whose tax situations are quite simple. Indeed, the data show that the costs of complying are regressive—lower, as a share of income, for wealthier taxpayers.  \nThis paper proposes a program known as the “Simple Return,” which would make it much easier for the millions of taxpayers with a relatively simple tax status to file their taxes. The Simple Return might apply to as many as 40 percent of Americans, for whom it could save up to 225 million hours of time and more than $2 billion a year in tax preparation fees. Converting the time savings into a monetary value by multiplying the hours saved by the wage rates of typical taxpayers, the Simple Return system would be the equivalent of reducing the tax burden for this group by about $44 billion over ten years. A Government Accountability Office report estimated in 1996 that a plan similar to the one proposed here could save the IRS close to $36 million per year by reducing the number of errors in tax filings and the subsequent need for investigations.  \nAround two-thirds of taxpayers take only the standard deduction and do not itemize. Frequently, all of their income is solely from wages from one employer and interest income from one bank. For almost all of these people, the IRS already receives information about each of their sources of income directly from their employers and banks. The IRS then asks these same people to spend time gathering documents and filling out tax forms, or to spend money paying tax preparers to do it. In essence, these taxpayers are just copying into a tax return information that the IRS already receives independently. The Simple Return would have the IRS take the information about income directly from the employers and banks and, if the person’s tax status were simple enough, send that taxpayer a return prefilled with ","cbCairMEOqLDhANx","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCairMEOqLDhANx","pdf",911793,32,"English","# I. The Costs of Tax Compliance\n# II. The Simple Return Program\n# III. Real-World Experience with Return-Free Filing\n# IV. Questions and Concerns\n# V. The Interaction of the Simple Return with Other Tax Policies\n# VI. Conclusion\n# References","[{\"question\":\"What problem does the paper address about federal income tax compliance?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that complying with federal income tax requirements imposes large burdens, especially on middle-class taxpayers with simple tax situations, and that these costs are regressive.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the “Simple Return” program?\",\"answer\":\"It is a voluntary return-filing approach that pulls income information directly from employers and banks and sends eligible taxpayers a prefilled return.\"},{\"question\":\"How would the Simple Return reduce the tax burden for eligible taxpayers?\",\"answer\":\"By shifting most data gathering into systems the IRS can already access, eligible filers would only check figures, sign, and submit, saving time and reducing preparation fees.\"}]","The Simple Return - Reducing America’s Tax Burden Through Return-Free Filing | PDF",1789791842]