ERD50
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Totally disagree. There will always be unforeseen and unintended consequences, so we shouldn't have to be stuck with bad forms for an extra year because an arbitrarily early due date. Having new forms out by late summer, after the filing season is over (excluding this year because of COVID-19) still gives the commercial tax form software folks plenty of time for the next tax filing season. I'm just trying to be practical. You want the 2020 tax forms to be ready on 1/1/2020 even though nobody will be able to use them (except for a few such as estimated tax forms) until 1/1/2021? Be serious, now.
I am serious. There's no reason to not get the forms right the first time. Of course, mistakes will happen, nobody is perfect. Fine, get a few mistakes cleaned up in the first quarter. That's really not asking too much at all.
In this way, people could start tracking their tax obligations as they make transactions. To issue this stuff after I started making the transactions is like starting a job with a half filled out, unsigned contract. If we are responsible for taxes for all income in 2020, then I should know the rules on the first day of the year.
-ERD50