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They've even done a pilot program that literally did what you wanted. [1] And yes, it was much better experience:

> Almost all participants said that they would opt to use the service the following year.

And yes, as you have said, the answer is lobbying.

> Tax preparation services strongly opposed ReadyReturn and have lobbied against its expansion.

[1] https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-was-exper....

EDIT: I can't find the podcast I heard this in, but pretty sure the tax professor that spearheaded this pilot got followed by people hired by Intuit.



The podcast might have been Planet Money: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/03/22/521132960/epis...

Priceonomics wrote an accompanying article: https://priceonomics.com/the-stanford-professor-who-fought-t...


Thank you, it was! The accompany article is really good, but it is also really depressing to read too :(


> EDIT: I can't find the podcast I heard this in, but pretty sure the tax professor that spearheaded this pilot got followed by people hired by Intuit.

This feels somehow like it should be illegal to willfully and knowingly make the common good worse in favor of your company. Perhaps via antitrust.


Intuit argues that they are working _for_ the common good, not against.


And once the politicians receive enough donations they believe them!




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