Filing my taxes serves as an annual reminder that our tax filing process could be so, so much easier, and that companies like H&R Block and Intuit are largely to blame. Reporter Jessica Huseman at ProPublica offers more insight.

As Huseman explains, the IRS could quite easily send out auto-completed tax forms, as proposed by leaders like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, saving millions of Americans countless hours each year. It’s a nudge Richard Thaler would love.

Private tax preparers have fought auto-filing legislation fiercely, calling it "government encroachment." But it's worth asking: why should the private sector be the middleman between citizens and paying taxes in the first place?

Tax preparing is yet another industry warped by Reagan-era notions that “big government” is always a threat to liberty, while “private enterprise” is always a benefit. This affirms a point “The Wire” writer David Simon has made that we’re living in a ‘Republican revolution.’

Yet as politicians like Pete Buttigieg have eloquently stated, we’ve been defining “freedom” too narrowly. We need to prioritize not just freedom FROM things like government interference, but freedom TO live our lives as we wish.

I can’t be the only one to wish that I didn’t have to spend time on a beautiful spring day filling out information the IRS already has on file. So let’s push back against self-interested businesses & have the IRS do our taxes!

*steps off soapbox and goes outside.*

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