131–140 of 148 posts
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> I finally told my brother in law to print the extension form and mail it to the IRS. What was wrong with this to begin with?
You're taking things that are already in a computer system (IRS Database of Income) and putting them back on paper to be snail mailed to them, then hopefully OCR'd or manually entered instead of directly inputting it to their website. Huge waste of time, taxpayer dollars, and prone to errors.
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> I finally told my brother in law to print the extension form and mail it to the IRS. What was wrong with this to begin with?
Nothing. The problem is that the IRS themselves first direct you to TurboTax, which apparently doesn't actually solve your problem. Only if you dig deeper do you find that you can just print and mail in the form yourself.
I guess I'm mainly shocked that mail wasn't seen as the preferred (or at least the most obvious) way of doing this. Mail, unlike online 'solutions', is documentable (copies + certified + delivery confirmation) and proven adequate for use in a courtroom. Also, pretty much all government communication can take place through it.
If they signed a deal with the IRS how come they stil control how the product is displayed? Shouldn’t this free filing app be part of the IRS site, or directly linked from the IRS site (click here to file your taxes...)?
https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-f... I haven't tried it, and some people tell of getting the runaround when trying to actually use it, but there it is.
That page is literally 1 click from the main irs.gov site. Granted, it's "below the fold", most people will have to scroll down just a little bit. But there it is: IRS Free File.
Go ahead, naysayers, downvote me all you want, but I'll say this: if you can't find that page and investigate if it applies to you, then you deserve to pay to file.
It's a totally different discussion if the links from the IRS site lead to dark patterns and tricks. That's a legitimate topic of discussion.
But not the existence of IRS Free File itself. That's just fine. About the only way it could be easier to find that page would be if it were "above the fold".
FWIW, Turbotax/H&R's hiding of their Free File site pages was discussed here about a week ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19758126 They have since made their pages discoverable by search engines and have denied that it was intentional obfuscation. But the news in TFA is that apparently someone at (or formerly at) H&R leaked internal documents with explicit guidance: > “Do not send clients to this Web Site u…
> The H&R Block spokeswoman said the company’s Free File offering grew 8.3% this year.. I wonder what was the growth of the paid products. Gut feeling tells me that it was far more than 8.3%. I have said before (and it didn't do good to my karma but this is more important). I feel that USA Democracy (not the political party) has been corrupted and injured by Lobbying. "Corporate America" rules and the people are ther…
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I agree with the fact that lobbying is a big problem. I think just about everybody agrees with that. However, the rest of your points aren’t so great. The tax services are quite convenient and useful paid services. Submitting free taxes in the USA is obviously an option. And to your point on health care: health insurance companies are not the only bad actors in the health care system.
Not convenient or useful at all. You know what would be actually convenient and useful? The government pre-filling most of your taxes for you, like in other countries.
I used to use TaxActOnline but this year it was asking for $80 simply because I had a 1099 for a couple months of 2018. I switched to FreeTaxUSA and did everything for free (well for me because I live in TEXAS)... I definitely think the US should have it's own system that individual states can extend however. The so-called "free" ones find any reason they can to swindle you. I used TaxActOnline exclusively for all my…
The issue is more than free filing. Everything seems to be broken. I helped my brother in law file for an extension through the IRS web site. The IRS directed us to private companies including TurboTax to file the extension. We clicked on the free TurboTax link which nowhere had an ability to file for an extension! I finally told my brother in law to print the extension form and mail it to the IRS. The IRS should not…
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Is there even a reason we have to file? My understanding is that if you don't file, the IRS knows about your W2 or 1099s anyway and will punish you, so what's even the point of filing yourself? Just have the IRS send a check or bill in the mail in April and end this nonsense industry.
Do you know how tax withholding works in other countries? Like if you have two jobs, does one have to know about the other so that they know which bracket the salaries they pay you fall into?
Eg. my tax code is 1185L - essentially meaning I have a tax free allowance of £11,850 PA and have no additional income.
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In addition to the penalty you'd incur, the IRS is unlikely to dig into your deductions and credits with your fervor, so they will likely compute a number that is "quite suboptimal". There are also multiple ways of doing things, and picking one path may be strategic to you (if you expect more or less income in the following years). Giving up on this flexibility and its ramifications will affect your outcome negativel…
I think the general idea would be for the IRS to provide you with the completed tax return. This should be sufficient for a vast majority of people who only earn employment income. You would then review the return and could update/file a return if you have additional deductions or business income that would not otherwise be reported to the IRS. I believe the UK and some other European countries already have this syst…
If you do have some uncomplicated deductions (eg. you are a higher rate tax payer and have made large donations to charity, or have business expenses which were not paid by your employer) you can phone the tax office or ammend them online.
Only those in more complicated situtations need to file anything, which most people do through the tax office's website.
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> The system should never had become so complex as to need a program. Actually there were bills in congress that would have made it so a program wasn't needed because the government would file on your behalf ( https://slate.com/business/2019/04/turbotax-bipartisan-tax-f... ). In most cases the government knows enough about you to calculate your taxes for you. Turbotax lobbied the government to kill these bills becaus…
> Turbotax lobbied the government to kill these bills because it would have destroyed their business model. “Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.” — Clay Shirky
In way, US is run by corporations so I think this was by design.
This is a country for corporations, run by corporations.
What’s written on US passports is a lie.