Automatic Tax Filing: Simulating a Pre-Populated Form 1040

Lucas Goodman, Katherine Lim, Bruce Sacerdote and Andrew Whitten

No 30008, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Each year Americans spend over 1.7 billion hours and $33 billion preparing individual tax returns, and these filing costs are regressive. To lower and redistribute the filing burden, researchers and policymakers have proposed having the IRS prepopulate tax returns for individuals. We evaluate this hypothetical policy using a large, nationally representative sample of returns filed for tax year 2019. Our baseline results indicate that between 66 and 75 million returns (42 to 48 percent of all returns) could be accurately pre-populated using only current-year information returns and the prior-year return. Accuracy rates decline with income and are higher for taxpayers who have fewer dependents or are unmarried. We also examine 2019 non-filers, finding that pre-populated returns tentatively indicate $8.2 billion in refunds due to 11 million (20 percent) of them.

JEL-codes: H0 H2 H24 I3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pbe and nep-pub
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Journal Article: Automated Tax Filing: Simulating a Prepopulated Form 1040 (2023)
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