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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

#421

Post by Thorentis »

burfog wrote: post #379
jacurtis wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most countries have this "automagical tax filing process". And what kills me the most is that America actually secretly has this same system too . Yet every year we have to go through the charade of filing taxes ourselves, when the governemnt already knows what we owe without us needing to round up paperwork, W2 forms, 1099 forms, and so forth. Yet they make us do it anyway. Don't believe me? Simply don't file your t…

If it was automatic, income would be missed. The government would be revealing what it doesn't know about, and people would not supply the missing information. Under the current system, people aren't sure what the government is aware of. Because we get in trouble for leaving things off, we are more likely to report everything.

This is why the Australian system is better.

Make people file a tax return, but auto-populate it with the data the government already knows. And at the end include a tick box clause that essentially says "I have included everything and reviewed the autofill info, and if I have omitted anything later discovered I will be prosecuted".

20 seconds to file your taxes if there's nothing unknown. Very easy to add extra info. Covers the tax departments back of you intentionally mislead them.

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

#422

Post by fedorareis »

twblalock wrote: post #347
fedorareis wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sure for a large percentage of Americans like myself the “$XXX” that they saved you is just the standard deduction. Maybe at some point in my life an itemized deduction will actually save me more money, but every time I have filed taxes TurboTax looks at my info and decides that the standard deduction is the best I’m going to get. So for some percentage of Americans TurboTax won’t be able to compete because they…

> So for some percentage of Americans TurboTax won’t be able to compete because they can’t save you more than the IRS already did with its deductions. Except many people will try TurboTax or a competing solution anyway, just in case they can get a little bit of money back.

I would expect that to be common for the first couple years but after a couple years of realizing that they aren’t saving any additional money or are saving less than they are paying for TurboTax I’d expect that to drop off.

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

#423

Post by adventured »

rockinghigh wrote: post #419
burfog wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was automatic, income would be missed. The government would be revealing what it doesn't know about, and people would not supply the missing information. Under the current system, people aren't sure what the government is aware of. Because we get in trouble for leaving things off, we are more likely to report everything.

We know what the IRS knows because the majority of people get the same forms as the IRS as far as income goes: W2, 1099, 1098, ... Unless you’re self-employed, the IRS only misses some deductions or foreign income.

Ever performed a lot of stock trades in a single year and had the IRS believe that you owe them $5 million in income taxes because they assume every sale you made was all profit? That's always fun, especially when they think they're right and they're entirely wrong.

The IRS information is at times comically incorrect in fact.

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

#424

Post by adventured »

zrail wrote: post #383
plerpin wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's by design. The GOP wants you to rub your face in the fact that the government runs on tax revenue, in the hope that you'll develop an allergy to taxes.

The thing of it is, the US government hasn’t run on tax revenue for over 20 years. Clinton was president last time the US had a balanced budget.

The US hasn't had a real balanced budget in much longer than that. During the Clinton era the balance was achieved in part by stealing from Social Security by keeping the surplus inflows and pretending there's a magic locked Social Security box with trillions of dollars in it (which are really IOUs backed by the Fed's ability to debase the future for past over-spending). We similarly treated as 'surplus' tax revenue that should have been set aside for future higher Medicare costs (which back then we knew full well were coming) and is now burning a massive hole in the present budget.

The Clinton years were the twilight of the fantasy of abusing inbound entitlement tax flows for spending in the present and ignoring the future. That government spending party trick - kicking the can down the road - is now exhausted on a normalized basis, so we're rapidly heading toward perma QE as the only solution remaining other than very high taxation across all major income groups.

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

#426

Post by irrational »

jacurtis wrote: post #190
xtracto wrote: post #38

This USA tax thing has always baffled me... it is the exact definition of why we pay taxes: for the government to provide services that are common to the country´s citizens. There´s nothing more common than tax collection: rich, middle class or poor. Why wouldn't citizens demand a public tax filing process? Even in Mexico we have an automagical tax filing process that makes: a) The great majority of the population wh…

Most countries have this "automagical tax filing process". And what kills me the most is that America actually secretly has this same system too . Yet every year we have to go through the charade of filing taxes ourselves, when the governemnt already knows what we owe without us needing to round up paperwork, W2 forms, 1099 forms, and so forth. Yet they make us do it anyway. Don't believe me? Simply don't file your t…

What they don't know is my charitable deductions. My charitable deductions greatly reduce my taxes. If I went with their automagical tax filing process I'd lose out on those deductions.

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

#427

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

irrational wrote: post #426
jacurtis wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most countries have this "automagical tax filing process". And what kills me the most is that America actually secretly has this same system too . Yet every year we have to go through the charade of filing taxes ourselves, when the governemnt already knows what we owe without us needing to round up paperwork, W2 forms, 1099 forms, and so forth. Yet they make us do it anyway. Don't believe me? Simply don't file your t…

What they don't know is my charitable deductions. My charitable deductions greatly reduce my taxes. If I went with their automagical tax filing process I'd lose out on those deductions.

That could be automated too largely. In Austria charities submit this information to the government and it automatically gets added to your prefilled tax filings.

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

#428

Post by kbutler »

kbutler wrote: post #325
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…

> 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. What are your top 5 well-run federal government programs? Slate likes these: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/04/the-top-dozen-fe... Includes things like land grants, patents, and highways. Mother Jones likes transfer programs (for efficientcy measured…

Yeah, I couldn't come up with any either.

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

#429

Post by intopieces »

adventured wrote: post #424
zrail wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing of it is, the US government hasn’t run on tax revenue for over 20 years. Clinton was president last time the US had a balanced budget.

The US hasn't had a real balanced budget in much longer than that. During the Clinton era the balance was achieved in part by stealing from Social Security by keeping the surplus inflows and pretending there's a magic locked Social Security box with trillions of dollars in it (which are really IOUs backed by the Fed's ability to debase the future for past over-spending). We similarly treated as 'surplus' tax revenue…

Can someone explain to me the negative consequences of running a deficit? Countries aren’t people. They don’t die. As long as countries are willing to lend us money and the US can service the debt, what does it really matter if the national debt is multiples of the GDP?

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

#430

Post by CivBase »

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...

> It is largely due to Republicans that we don't have such a program. Voting matters.

Except I don't get to vote on single issues like this. The US is a republic and I get to vote for leaders who supposedly represent the voting population to which I belong.

Problem is, there is never a viable representative who even somewhat closely matches my views on all issues - especially since the parties have so much influence in elections.

So it's not very helpful to just imply that I should simply vote for someone else.

Voter education is important for issues like this. If an idea becomes popular among a party's voters, the party will start to support that idea, which in turn influences their candidates.

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