Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing

Post by basch » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 3:56 PM UTC

cannonedhamster wrote: post #34

javagram wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think we exist in a world where this is possible. The majority of people are pretty ignorant. Look at all the news articles from early in 2019 talking about the size of tax refunds, and people thinking they didn’t get a tax cut because their refund this year was smaller than the one they got last year. In reality, almost everyone got a tax cut (>90% of taxpayers) but that doesn’t necessarily mean a larger r…

Not everyone got a tax cut and the cuts went primarily to businesses and the ultra wealthy. The President also tried to make the cuts look bigger by changing withholding requirements. It doesn't invalidate that most people are ignorant, most people don't even pay any taxes, but if you're moderately well off, have more than one home, and live in a state that actually has a functional state government that provides ser…

Post by derekp7 » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 3:57 PM UTC

TheHypnotist wrote: post #108

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will say, vote with your dollars. If you don't like Intuit's lobbying, please don't feed the beast and use their services.

What are suitable alternatives? Aren't they the best in class, regardless of how shitty that class is?

Post by ascagnel_ » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 3:59 PM UTC

gambler wrote: post #78

knubie wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question I have is whether a government provided automatic filing would actually be cheaper (or more effective) than say, Turbotax. I see a couple of ways in which it might not be as favorable: 1. It costs more than $100 per tax payer per year to implement (about the cost of Turbotax). However the flat $100 or so that most people pay to Turbotax can be seen as a kind of regressive tax. 2. It is less effective at…

>The question I have is whether a government provided automatic filing would actually be cheaper (or more effective) than say, Turbotax. The question is valid, but the numbers do not add up. TT asks ~$50 for federal return. If everyone in US used the service, the cost would amount to over 16 billion dollars. That is more than the entire IRS budget[1] right now. [1] https://www.irs.gov/statistics/irs-budget-and-workfo…

Post by rayiner » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 4:02 PM UTC

SilasX wrote: post #51

SkyBelow wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>US is really odd how it emphasizes the benefit of the middleman over the benefit of the individual citizen (it seems). I wonder what extent this is decided by how we vote. As long as voters pick the politician who prioritizes the middle man and gets their campaign contribution is selected over the politician who prioritizes the public but whose opponent gets the middleman's campaign contribution we will continue to…

Is the public really to blame for this? Is there an actual broad constituency that doesn't want this, or at least who trusts an interest group to represent them and who doesn't want this?

Post by ascagnel_ » Tue, Apr 09, 2019, 4:05 PM UTC

everdev wrote: post #61

I'm self employed and had to explain to my kids why taxes in the US were so complicated and took hours to do over the weekend. There must be powerful forces at work because Republicans have touted a flat tax or a return the size of a postcard for decades but when they controlled all three branches of government couldn't get anywhere near enough votes to pass it. It's truly an abysmal system and I hope my kids don't h…