If you only have W2s and (most) 1099s and make <$200,000 it's pretty straightforward to use free file fillable forms for federal and your state's free electronic filing service. You can also mail the forms in. You just do 1040 and skip all the schedules.
I've only had such simple taxes for like a couple adult years. I've had at least 1 other complication every year since. The stats seem to imply a similar pattern broadly too since each schedule is only filed by a minority of returns, but most returns file at least one schedule.
Yes, and they could still file those Schedule Cs against their automatic tax bill. Schedule C is totally separate, and could even be filed totally separately just like a business return.
But they easily could be. You fill out a Schedule C and it changes one line on your 1040. If the government filled out your 1040 for you, you'd do your Schedule C and 1, and then fill that into the one line on your pre-filled 1040.
hear hear, it's umimaginably dumb that we don't just do a flat tax on income over say 80k. feds can have 12%, state can have 8% and all this complexity can be burned down.
The problem with these "who says the current law has to stay as it is" discussions is that the more that is proposed to be changed, the lower the likelihood it will ever happen
