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IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete with TurboTax

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Re: IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete with TurboTax

#81

Post by klipt »

everybodyknows wrote: post #69
lykr0n wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. TubroTax is around $40 to file. CreditKarma offers their own version which is free. The controversy is that the IRS bound its own hands in saying it couldn't make its own filing software. I see no problems with private companies charging a Fee to provide a better service.

The Credit Karma blurb is here: https://www.creditkarma.com/tax But -- the hard bits are state-specific support, and the supplementals K-1, 6250, et al. Anyone have first-hand experience with CreditKarma tax filing? There's also TaxAct -- anyone tried it? https://www.taxact.com/

I used TaxAct in the past but they're now almost as expensive as TurboTax.

I now use https://www.freetaxusa.com - a little less hand holding than TurboTax, but if you know what you're doing it handles almost every situation and is, as advertised, free.

Re: IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete with TurboTax

#82

Post by komali2 »

alistairSH wrote: post #67

In the US, we've had decades of (largely GOP) messaging that the government can't do anything properly. A substantial portion of the population believes it. As noted in a sibling comment, the IRS could pre-fill forms that would be correct for the vast majority of tax payers (who take the standard deduction/don't itemize, have a single job, and no other edge cases). These people should not be paying TurboTax either wa…

It's pretty disgusting. Summed up in one of my favorite tweets, which went something like

> Gov: you owe us money. It's called taxes

> Ctzn: oh ok, how much do I owe you?

> Gov: you have to figure it out

> Ctzn: oh well, then I owe you 0

> Gov: no, no, we know how much you owe, you have to figure it out, and by the way if you get it wrong you go to jail

Re: IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete with TurboTax

#83

Post by altoidaltoid »

jlarocco wrote: post #55
throwaheyy wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not an American but I've been doing US taxes for 10+ years. There's never been any guessing involved. What were you trying to guess? I've underpaid precisely once, when I didn't know about qurterly reporting, and the so-called "penalty" was nothing unfair -- just the interest the money earned in my account instead of the IRS's.

I don't know what the OP's "guessing" comment was about, but the whole process is asinine. The IRS already knows the numbers on W-2 forms because they get the same data from employers. Financial institutions also send them 1099s and other forms. So the IRS already knows all the numbers . There's little point in making people manually re-enter the data. The IRS should automatically fill in everything it knows about, a…

Doesn't matter. The pain and anguish is the goal. I have heard multiple commentators/politicians ( mostly GOP ) state that they want taxpayers to have a negative experience when it comes to paying taxes.

Re: IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete with TurboTax

#84

Post by polta5025 »

coldpie wrote: post #44
jjeaff wrote: post #11

There is no reason the IRS shouldn't have a simple, online fillable 1099EZ that makes the calculations and validations for you. And while their at it, match the SSN to the w2 info that they have on file. This would take care of 80% of the population. Just don't outsource it. I'm sure USDS could have it ready in less than a year.

> There is no reason the IRS shouldn't have a simple, online fillable 1099EZ that makes the calculations and validations for you. It is largely due to Republicans that we don't have such a program. Voting matters. https://priceonomics.com/the-stanford-professor-who-fought-t...

[flagged]

Re: IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete with TurboTax

#85

Post by Goronmon »

mkhpalm wrote: post #72
coldpie wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no reason the IRS shouldn't have a simple, online fillable 1099EZ that makes the calculations and validations for you. It is largely due to Republicans that we don't have such a program. Voting matters. https://priceonomics.com/the-stanford-professor-who-fought-t...

Both parties have been very much in charge of this tax situation in America. Both parties have had many, MANY, majority rule situations over the past decades they could have done anything else about it. Nobody would have been stopping either of them at different points in time if they ever wanted to cash in on their party rhetoric.

The problem generally comes down to the fact that no Republican is for improving tax filing. So all it takes is for a handful of Democrats to be lobbied to oppose it and even a Democratic majority can't push changes through.

Re: IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete with TurboTax

#86

Post by blihp »

Waterluvian wrote: post #39

So in Canada I pay about $15 CAD to file for my household. It takes 20 mins and is submitted digitally. Is this the equivalent of the issue in the USA or is it more expensive or something? I get that free filing is kind of obvious as a right, but the online service really does give me $15 of value so I've never thought to be upset by it.

It's quite a bit more expensive here in the U.S. The issue is that many of the people they are steering away from the free filing (i.e. low income) would benefit from it the most: they have very little money already and their taxes are often a very straightforward tax table lookup. So most would receive no value from a premium tax prep service.

Re: IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete with TurboTax

#87

Post by dang »

SilasX wrote: post #27
dang wrote: post #9

HN has always been at war with TurboTax. Edit: looks like this line didn't go over so well. To avoid distractions, I'm going to move these links to another post and mark this subthread off topic. Links moved to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21924055 .

>HN has always been at war with TurboTax. "Snarky trivialization of activism on this issue" seems like the very kind of thing you'd normally discourage.

That certainly was not my meaning!

Sometimes I add little twists into these things to make them less bone-crushingly tedious. Occasionally they cross a line. That's how I find out where the line is.

Re: IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete with TurboTax

#88

Post by [deleted] »

mkhpalm wrote: post #72
coldpie wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no reason the IRS shouldn't have a simple, online fillable 1099EZ that makes the calculations and validations for you. It is largely due to Republicans that we don't have such a program. Voting matters. https://priceonomics.com/the-stanford-professor-who-fought-t...

Both parties have been very much in charge of this tax situation in America. Both parties have had many, MANY, majority rule situations over the past decades they could have done anything else about it. Nobody would have been stopping either of them at different points in time if they ever wanted to cash in on their party rhetoric.

[deleted]

Re: IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete with TurboTax

#89

Post by drewg123 »

jjeaff wrote: post #11

There is no reason the IRS shouldn't have a simple, online fillable 1099EZ that makes the calculations and validations for you. And while their at it, match the SSN to the w2 info that they have on file. This would take care of 80% of the population. Just don't outsource it. I'm sure USDS could have it ready in less than a year.

Add in 1099s, and it would probably cover 99% of the population.

I'm happy to pay my taxes. I'm very much NOT happy to collect all of my information and carry it to my accountant. And then be afraid that I forgot something.

In fact, if its the accountant's lobbying against this, I'd be happy to pay $400 (what I pay for tax prep) into an accountant retirement fund or something, just don't make me collect all the information that the IRS already has.

Re: IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete with TurboTax

#90

Post by rdtsc »

coldpie wrote: post #35
rdtsc wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% agree. To me they seem to be playing this perverse game of knowing how much you owe based on your W-2s then not telling you, waiting for you to file and guess how much you owe just right. If you guess wrong tough luck, you get penalties years later.

Have you actually gotten a penalty? The IRS is just interested in gathering its taxes, it has no interest in punishing you. You have to mess up pretty hard and/or deliberately to get the IRS on your case.

6 years later you don't just get to pay what you owed. There is interest to be paid as well. You can negotiate sure, but they could have just sent a pre-filled form saying "based on W-2 and what we already took out, here is how much you owe us, if you agree, sign, send the check and return it" or even better do it online.
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