If a rich person shorts Intuit stock, spend $5-10 million developing a really slick tax program, and releases it for free, could they break even?
They could make it a charity, and the $5-10 million would be tax deductible on top of it.
At that point, maybe Intuit wouldn't have the motivation to keep the tax code complicated. Then we could move to a simplified system at the speed of congress.
I think the sticking point is that during that transition you have to have people to release the constant updates that currently happen. Maybe they can be volunteers, but maybe not.
They could make it a charity, and the $5-10 million would be tax deductible on top of it.
At that point, maybe Intuit wouldn't have the motivation to keep the tax code complicated. Then we could move to a simplified system at the speed of congress.