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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

#271

Post by anticensor »

reaperducer wrote: post #253
arcticbull wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally all of that information is already being reported to the IRS by the relevant companies on forms 1098, 1099-whatever, W-2, W-4 and whatever other schedules apply. The IRS defines the rules, they built an engine to take all that into account to ensure you're not lying on your taxes. They just have to literally run it and send you the printout for verification with a remittance stub. The rest is regulatory cap…

Literally all of that information is already being reported to the IRS by the relevant companies on forms 1098, 1099-whatever, W-2, W-4 and whatever other schedules apply. But not instantly. And not all of it in time for April 15th. Sometimes those details don't make it to the IRS for years. We don't yet live in a world of instantaneous information transfer about every American citizen to the government. Some people…

> And not all of it in time for April 15th

Tax filing and payment periods can be amended to accomodate that, even the fiscal year. It is not like these periods are unchangeable articles of basic law.

FYI we get all those figures ready by the start of March here in Turkey (Turkish yearly income tax deadline is March 20th). US can clearly figure a way out with three times as more people than Turkey.

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

#272

Post by rstupek »

philwelch wrote: post #181
rdtsc wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've also been rewarded with unexpected large dollar figure checks in the mail. But did they also send any interest? Notice if you owe them, you also owe interest, unless you negotiate. If they owe you, you don't usually get the interest sent do you.

If you get a tax return at all, you've essentially given the federal government an interest-free loan all year.

And most people think of that money they get back as a bonus! Like it was never their money in the first place but a gift from the government

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

#273

Post by ergothus »

zchrykng wrote: post #227
jorblumesea wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, Gerrymandering, voter suppression... Hard to believe they're acting in any democratic fashion. Btw, impeachment is a well documented power of the legislative branch.

If you've paid attention to the history of gerrymandering, you would know that both sides do it when in power and complain about it when not.

"Both have done it" is not the same as "both have done it equally". Nor does it mean "we should therefore be okay with it".

If we support the idea of Democracy, we should stop abuses that harm democracy, even if it prevents abuses those we otherwise agree with have taken advantage of.

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

#274

Post by joshstrange »

TheTrotters wrote: post #240
joshstrange wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or at least not any gerrymandering that happened in the past 100 years. This is the /very/ important distinction. Our entire country was gerrymandered when they gave every state 2 votes in the senate. It's truly crazy how few Americans can sway the makeup of the senate/house/EC. Edit: removed "(and 3 base in the house)" because that's not correct, I was mixing it up with the EC in my head.

Every state has at least one representative in the House, not three.

Thank you, I had a huge brain fart on that and my EC knowledge got all mingled in with house reps.

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

#275

Post by vehementi »

floatingatoll wrote: post #256
lazyasciiart wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who your dependants are and what type of filing you are doing (single, married, married jointly)

“If your tax situation has changed in any of the following ways, please check the appropriate box(es) and mail this back to us or submit online; we’ll issue a revised estimate within 30 days and extend your review deadline accordingly.”

Nah, there's no way to get around that entry level criticism, abandon the plan

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

#276

Post by griegm »

astura wrote: post #144
mulmen wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to mention any of these better options?

I can only speak to myself. TaxHawk ( https://www.taxhawk.com ) is what I've been using for like almost a decade. Federal filing is free, state filing is only is $15. You're free to use the free federal option without having to pay for the state option. No tiers, no dark patterns, no upsells. The UI is fantastic (and the UI is the entire point of using software, otherwise I'd just fill out my 1040 by hand like I did…

Thanks for sharing, I'll try it out this year!

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

#277

Post by arcticbull »

reaperducer wrote: post #253
arcticbull wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally all of that information is already being reported to the IRS by the relevant companies on forms 1098, 1099-whatever, W-2, W-4 and whatever other schedules apply. The IRS defines the rules, they built an engine to take all that into account to ensure you're not lying on your taxes. They just have to literally run it and send you the printout for verification with a remittance stub. The rest is regulatory cap…

Literally all of that information is already being reported to the IRS by the relevant companies on forms 1098, 1099-whatever, W-2, W-4 and whatever other schedules apply. But not instantly. And not all of it in time for April 15th. Sometimes those details don't make it to the IRS for years. We don't yet live in a world of instantaneous information transfer about every American citizen to the government. Some people…

> But not instantly. And not all of it in time for April 15th. Sometimes those details don't make it to the IRS for years.

And yet it has to get there by tax time so I’m having trouble believing it takes some tax forms literally years to make it to DC. Especially when you go to jail if they don’t.

> We don't yet live in a world of instantaneous information transfer about every American citizen to the government.

Buuuut it all has to get there by April 15th (actually February right) so I’m having trouble following this line of reasoning.

> Some people also see that as a good thing.

Why would information arriving quarterly (bi-weekly even) instead of annually be a bad thing when that information is legally bound to arrive at its destination anyways?

The only thing you're arguing is that the government shouldn't run their program a few months before you submit the documents, then send it to you for review, instead of afterwards and sending it to a tax judge. That's madness.

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

#278

Post by floatingatoll »

vehementi wrote: post #275
floatingatoll wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“If your tax situation has changed in any of the following ways, please check the appropriate box(es) and mail this back to us or submit online; we’ll issue a revised estimate within 30 days and extend your review deadline accordingly.”

Nah, there's no way to get around that entry level criticism, abandon the plan

If you can cover 90% of citizens with an estimate and a list of predictable circumstance checkboxes that can be phoned in for a new estimate, would that be sufficient to make it viable?

(Or, if you’re being sarcastic, please indicate so more clearly.)

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

#279

Post by xrd »

danieltillett wrote: post #220
xrd wrote: post #172

It's so insane to me that Grover Norquist somehow lobbied against free tax filing provided by the IRS. It escapes all logic that he didn't pay attention to what other countries do. It escapes all logic that he didn't think for a moment about what the cost would be to citizens in (more or less direct payments to Intuit) and that's not considering the incalculable cost of just gathering up all this documentation and pu…

It is not insane, just not obvious what Grover’s aim is. He is anti-tax for a large number of reasons. By making paying tax painful for the majority of people he is trying to increase the percentage of the population that hate the IRS and taxes. All very sane if your aim is to lower taxes.

Ok, this makes me feel like maybe he had intention and thought behind this. I can honestly align with that thinking if he was doing it for this reason. It seems like the world only works with subterfuge, sadly. Is it impossible to be honest about what you want to do and move people in that direction, or is it only possible to motivate change by lying to people.

I don't love Grover Norquist, but I thought it was interesting/open-minded of him to see Burning Man for himself. And, I align with the idea of reducing taxes. So, this makes me feel like he was not just a useful idiot if he actually did it for this reason.

But, still, what a cost to bear. And, does the long term goal of reducing taxation by causing people to hate the IRS get him any closer to actually reducing taxes and/or getting rid of the IRS? Obviously, that did not happen.

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

#280

Post by alistairSH »

wool_gather wrote: post #116
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…

There's also a political lobby (see: Grover Norquist) for the idea that filing taxes must never be made easier, because that will make them more palatable. Combined with their axiom that taxes are inherently bad, the result is an argument that tax filing should actually be as painful as possible. (The surprising strength of this lobby is one possible reason that the "file your taxes on a postcard" idea died a few yea…

Yeah, I don't buy Norquist's theory. Making taxes easier doesn't make them any more palatable. Probably the opposite because people would have a better understanding of how much they're paying. Right now, a lot of people mindlessly fill in their needlessly complex forms, and pray they get a refund or don't owe more than $20 or so (because that's all they have in their wallet).
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