The idea of paying someone $250 when the government already has the data is ridiculous. Accountants are accessible to some, but we shouldn't need to pay someone when the government can do the calculations.
The government really doesn't have the data. Do they have cameras in your home detecting whether or not you paid for more than 50% of your child's living expenses?
He'll just have to take your word for it, and send that in to the IRS. He won't be liable for it if it's a lie; you will. So what's the difference to you telling the IRS directly?
And no, checking a box "I did not have any income besides my tax-withheld salary [_]" and filling in an integer "I have [_] dependent children" seems like something most people could do on an IRS web page without having to buy software or pay an accountant every year. (And if you tell them when the kids were born the first time you do this, they could carry them over year to year and age them out automatically when they turn 18, and then you wouldn't even have to do that any more unless and until some exception occurs.)
All these pro-status quo comments sound so weird, like desperate apologetics for the world's most needlessly complicated system. Are you all just finding it impossible to conceive of there being a better way than The American Way, or what's the reason?
