Poor phrasing on my part - I’m not implying they would insert new taxes on the sly, but rather that in areas where tax payers have some discretion, the government software would default to the least favorable treatment for the tax payer, the effect being a higher net tax...
What would stop people from consulting to get more favorable taxes? Very few people need tax optimization[1], and government default doesn't preclude it - maybe Intuit could offer this as a service instead. In any case, I don't think the net tax would be higher than the current one that includes paying hundreds for TurboTax or a tax accountant (multiplied by all filers).
1. A guess. The majority think of rebate as "money from the government", which partially explains why tax-preparation costs as much as it does.
Your premise is incorrect. Under 20% of people file a 1040ez, the simplest tax form. (Which doesn’t allow you to claim basic deductions like student loan interest.) That means the vast majority of filers see some benefit from “tax optimization.” If your computerized system did just the 1040ez calculation, for example, that’d be a huge effective increase in taxes.
