--- title: Elizabeth Warren Wants to Tear Up Your Tax Return description: The Massachusetts senator says making the IRS do the number-crunching would save Americans time and money. authors: - name: Martha C. White role: Writer url: https://money.com/author/martha-c-white/ education: BA, English, Princeton University at_money_since: 2015 articles: 350 covers: - Taxes - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Federal Reserve Rate Cuts - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Technology published: '2016-04-13T18:51:57.000Z' modified: '2024-05-07T10:40:41.000Z' section: Taxes tags: - federal income tax - income taxes - IRS - pubdesk - Tax Season - Taxes word_count: 314 canonical: https://money.com/elizabeth-warren-irs-taxes-free/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![160413_FF_WarrenTaxes](https://img.money.com/2016/04/160413_ff_warrentaxes.jpg) *Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, speaks during a U.S. Labor Department news conference at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, April 6, 2016.* Having to [do your taxes](https://money.com/topic/tax-guide/) stinks, and Elizabeth Warren feels your pain. On Wednesday the Massachusetts senator [introduced](https://www.warren.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1110) the Tax Filing Simplification Act of 2016, which would put the onus for crunching the numbers and figuring how much you'll get back or owe on the IRS. Many people wouldn't have to deal with a tax return at all. Lots of other countries currently have setups like this, and the idea of [return-free filing](https://money.com/tax-free-filing-return-fraud/) has had bipartisan appeal in the past (Ronald Reagan talked about it back in 1985, [Vox](http://www.vox.com/2016/4/13/11417676/elizabeth-warren-tax-return-free-filing) pointed out). But in her proposal, Warren said the tax preparation industry has blocked efforts to implement something similar in this country, just to protect their business interests. "Congress should be making it easier for Americans to file their taxes each year, not bowing to the interests of the tax prep industry," she said. **Read next: Tax Procrastinators Get an Extra Weekend** The IRS currently offers a program called [Free File](https://www.irs.gov/uac/Free-File:-Do-Your-Federal-Taxes-for-Free), but it's so convoluted, only [3% of taxpayers](http://www.vox.com/2016/4/13/11417676/elizabeth-warren-tax-return-free-filing) bother with it. Since the IRS already gets copies of all the tax forms, like W-2s and 1099s, that are mailed to taxpayers, Warren wants to make it the agency's job to fill in the blanks on your return, then send it to you to make sure it's right—basically the opposite of how it works now, where you have to do all of the legwork and hope you don't forget or miscalculate something that's going to get you audited. "Such a system would save taxpayers time and money, and would result in more accurate tax returns," Warren's office said in a [report](https://consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/tax_maze_report.pdf) about the hassle factor of filling out and filing tax documents. Return-free filing would cut down the average 13 hours American spend working on their taxes to just minutes, the report noted, and save filers the average $200 each spends on tax prep help. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/elizabeth-warren-irs-taxes-free/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Taxes", "item": "https://money.com/taxes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Tax Preparation", "item": "https://money.com/tax-preparation/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Elizabeth Warren Wants to Tear Up Your Tax Return" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/elizabeth-warren-irs-taxes-free/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/elizabeth-warren-irs-taxes-free/", "name": "Elizabeth Warren Wants to Tear Up Your Tax Return", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-04-13T18:51:57.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/elizabeth-warren-irs-taxes-free/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/elizabeth-warren-irs-taxes-free/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-07T10:40:41.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Elizabeth Warren Wants to Tear Up Your Tax Return", "articleSection": "Taxes", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/04/160413_ff_warrentaxes.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1400, "caption": "160413_FF_WarrenTaxes" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Martha C. 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