As a rule of thumb I would not trust IRS to do my taxes but I am happy if they send me a draft and I have to just sign or make corrections.
That's how it works usually.
Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)
201–210 of 438 posts
Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)
#202Could be great... and they could give you a few options... ie: filling with your spouse, itemized deductions, just plain and simple or you're on your own.
Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)
#203I'm annoyed that there is no simple system for the IRS to tell me what I owe, and let me pay or dispute. Instead, we play this game where the IRS provides a bunch of complicated documents, I guess which ones to fill out and submit, then wait 3 years to see if I was randomly chosen to see if I was correct. So it's very easy to make a mistake for dozens of years, then suddenly be penalized at random. It's the worst kin…
The IRS has actually run trials like this in the past. Very successful, at least for simply W2-based returns, since most people's taxable transactions get reported by companies anyway (i.e., mortgages/interest, other income, etc.) and most people use the standardized deduction. Inuit and Quicken subsequently lobbied to end those programs and even bar the IRS from running similar programs...
There was an interesting Planet Money episode about this [0].
Apparently the lobbying by Intuit is actually fairly minor compared to the opposition by Republicans. Some group of Republican legislators came together and agreed to oppose all tax increases, and also agreed to oppose many types of tax simplification. The thinking being that the more painful filing your taxes is, the more people will have a negative perception of taxes in general and be opposed to tax increases.
[0] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/03/22/521132960/epis...
Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
They could. I envision a one time use token for each charity you give to. You give the charity the one time use token issues by the government, and they report your donation directly to the government. Financial institutions and other companies already give the government a copy of the form they give you for self employment income and taxable financial transactions. The states also report state taxes and property tax…
Why one time? Why can't I get an "alternate" IDs from the IRS where the IRS knows the "real" number it's associated with, and provide the charity with that? Or heck, let me just tell the charity my email address, and then tell the IRS that all the donations for that email should be credited to me. People who want more privacy can "just" sign up for bespoke email addresses.
One time use token for every charity. Much like one time use tokens that banks issue when you use Apple Pay/Google Pay (?)
Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)
#205I'm annoyed that there is no simple system for the IRS to tell me what I owe, and let me pay or dispute. Instead, we play this game where the IRS provides a bunch of complicated documents, I guess which ones to fill out and submit, then wait 3 years to see if I was randomly chosen to see if I was correct. So it's very easy to make a mistake for dozens of years, then suddenly be penalized at random. It's the worst kin…
> The IRS have all the data Not..entirely true. My 2016 taxes were professionally done, but we somehow forgot to include one of the something-something-1099 forms from a brokerage firm. The brokerage reported some RSU stock-sells to the IRS but didn't report the cost-basis, and so the IRS assumed the cost-basis was $0 and thus taxed the full sale as income (effectively double-taxing all the RSUs). They just sent a ta…
Wouldn't it be useful if they gave you a filled version of the return forms? Then it would be easy to check for discrepancies between the IRS and CPA forms, and you'd easily be able to tell if either of them forgot something. If both independently arrived at the same result, you could be very sure you got it right.
Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nearly everyone I've talked to (on both sides of the political spectrum) agrees on this issue; if the IRS has the means to verify and audit the data, they might as well prepare the forms and just get authorization (+ any additional info they might be lacking) before tax returns are submitted. So how is it that lobbying alone is enough to persuade lawmakers to take the side of Intuit et al.? And which lawmakers are so…
Lobbying + campaign contributions. + the knowledge that as long as they don't change the situation, they'll be able to expect future campaign contributions.
I agree that may be a factor in more controversial issues where siding with lobbyists doesn't come at the cost of alienating a huge majority of your constituents. This seems different.
Almost everyone (from what I understand) agrees, so it's a pretty clear case where we should be able to call out those lawmakers and say "you're obviously only doing this for the money/job security - you can't even pretend to be against it on principle."
Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)
#207“Your taxes” is such an overloaded term that it’s almost comical to refer to it as if it means the same thing for everyone. There is basically one straight-forward case where the IRS preparing taxes makes sense: that of full time employees whose only income is from their job which issues W2s. For everyone else — which includes: - People working multiple part time jobs - People with non-standard investment portfolios…
Think of it this way. There are about 125 million households in the US. 80% of those households obtain money via: W-2, Retirement (Social Security, 1099-r), bank interest via 1099, dividends or other investment income via 1099, contractor income via 1099 and similar. 13% of taxpayers can file a 1040EZ (aka simple enough to use a phone IVR) 100 million households can be freed of a needless administrative burden. Why n…
Intuit and HR Block need to make profits. How can you be against corporate profits?
Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
The IRS has actually run trials like this in the past. Very successful, at least for simply W2-based returns, since most people's taxable transactions get reported by companies anyway (i.e., mortgages/interest, other income, etc.) and most people use the standardized deduction. Inuit and Quicken subsequently lobbied to end those programs and even bar the IRS from running similar programs...
Nearly everyone I've talked to (on both sides of the political spectrum) agrees on this issue; if the IRS has the means to verify and audit the data, they might as well prepare the forms and just get authorization (+ any additional info they might be lacking) before tax returns are submitted. So how is it that lobbying alone is enough to persuade lawmakers to take the side of Intuit et al.? And which lawmakers are so…
The preference of average citizens appears to be almost immaterial to what Congress actually does. Instead, interest groups and rich people are the ones who win. E.g.: https://www.vox.com/2014/4/18/5624310/martin-gilens-testing-...
Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
> they drive the speed they feel comfortable with, regardless of the speed limit My anecdata does not support this. When roads are not congested, I can see that most drivers accelerate from ~70+mph to ~80+mph right ofter the speed limit sign changes from 60 to 70.
I think what you're seeing is that most people know that up to 10mph over the limit is pretty safe in regards to getting a speeding ticket. That's separate from how fast they think is safe on the freeway in general from a physical standpoint. If there were no limits posted, they'd go even faster. So basically I'm saying that both you and the parent poster are both correct. It's just that more than just physical safet…
The claim that the average speed at which people drive depends on the speed limit, and the claim that it does not, cannot both be correct.
Re: Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes? (2015)
#210I'm annoyed that there is no simple system for the IRS to tell me what I owe, and let me pay or dispute. Instead, we play this game where the IRS provides a bunch of complicated documents, I guess which ones to fill out and submit, then wait 3 years to see if I was randomly chosen to see if I was correct. So it's very easy to make a mistake for dozens of years, then suddenly be penalized at random. It's the worst kin…
Their problem, not mine.
It's really your problem not theirs. It would cost very little for the IRS to do this and — if you're in the simple case where the IRS already has all your info — make filling your taxes as complicated as clicking "OK" on the IRS's website. And even if you're not in the trivial case where that suffices, it would save the aggregated taxpayers ungodly amounts of time and frustration.
That's basically how it works in many european countries. Filling is finding 10mn to log in the tax service's website, verifying that nothing looks out of whack and validating.