Our guest this week is Katherine Lim, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Policymakers have long debated whether the IRS should fill out income tax returns for individuals. Lim will discuss the findings of a study she coauthored that estimates the agency could accurately prepopulate nearly half of all individual tax returns with the data it has on hand.

This interview is part of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center series of online conversations on tax and fiscal policy in today’s economy. The discussions take place every other Thursday afternoon and feature varying perspectives on the historic economic challenges facing the United States and the world and the best ways to address them.