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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

#451

Post by badatseciruty »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #417
granzymes wrote: post #7

>Now companies are barred from hiding their free products from search engines such as Google, and a years-old prohibition on the IRS creating its own online filing system has been scrapped. >Under the new rules, participating companies also have to standardize the naming convention of their Free File version as “IRS Free File program delivered by [product name].” Respect to ProPublica for their commitment to this iss…

This is great news. The US is making great strides towards joining the rest of the civilized world in the 20th century, finally.

Everyone knows that the first 20 years of a Century are for the early adopters.

It's best to wait until all the bugs have been worked out.

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

#452

Post by testis321 »

cactus2093 wrote: post #363
danShumway wrote: post #281

Excellent news, and congrats to Propublica for in no small part making it happen. This wasn't just a shady operation -- Turbotax openly lied to customers about its free file program, it deliberately suppressed the program from search results, it lied to veterans. It was 100% acting in bad faith during negotiations with the IRS. Sometimes topics like this end up becoming kind of ideological or partisan; but in this ca…

There's a good Planet Money episode that explains how surprisingly it is still a partisan issue. The Republican argument, at least from certain prominent people in the party, is that if paying taxes gets too easy the average American will be less likely to push their representatives to lower taxes or to oppose new taxes that get proposed.

> is that if paying taxes gets too easy the average American will be less likely to push their representatives to lower taxes or to oppose new taxes that get proposed.

This is problematic here (small EU country). People have no idea how much taxes they pay, and believe free (healthcare, schooling,...) is actually free, and that government can pay for anything. If average Joe (Janez here) would know how much taxes he pays for (eg.) health, and what kind of a shitty service he gets for that, he'd be protesting already,... but since it's 'free', it's ok, just so he doesn't have to pay for it (out of pocket directly).

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

#453

Post by testis321 »

RandomTisk wrote: post #415
cactus2093 wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a good Planet Money episode that explains how surprisingly it is still a partisan issue. The Republican argument, at least from certain prominent people in the party, is that if paying taxes gets too easy the average American will be less likely to push their representatives to lower taxes or to oppose new taxes that get proposed.

Which 'prominent people'? It sounds like an incredibly silly argument, one I had never heard of before.

Honestly, knowing how much taxes you pay is important (and as i said in a comment above, problematic, if people don't know).

But this can be solved by autofiling taxes, and then sending a yearly report: you earned X, paid Y taxes, out of those, Z goes to this, Q to that, W to that other thing, you've used these government services this year, that cost that much money, etc.

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

#454

Post by whatsmyusername »

joshstrange wrote: post #211
whatsmyusername wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's due to large portions of the electorate being low information, single issue, or evangelical voters. You know, morons.

I don't disagree with the first line but the second line is a huge problem IMHO. Things will only continue to degrade when we paint these people as "morons", it will only push them further into the arms of the party that espouses to be fighting for them all while working against their best interests.

Or they die off. Which (having grown up there) is infinitely more likely.

Their smart kids leave. The one thing they do that's smart is put all their resources into their 'smart' kids (which may not actually be the smartest ones) and then push them into an environment that encourages them to make something of themselves. The main side effect being that they're no longer satisfied by nothing and leave.

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

#455

Post by whatsmyusername »

pm90 wrote: post #222
zchrykng wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Is it? What do you think they think of urbanites? Do you think city dwellers being more polite is going to sway their minds? Make them realize the error of their ways? I do not agree with the language in the OP's comment since this isn't Reddit. However, the argument that Trumpism is a result of City Dwellers holding Rural folks in low esteem does not hold much water.

I assume you responded to some dumb comment where some rural no one took a cheap shot at city dwellers.

In Pittsburgh it's hilariously easy to tell who from the area hasn't actually been in the city for 10 - 15 years. Mention East Liberty or Lawrenceville and they get all scared about drugs and black people. These areas are now some of the most expensive in the city.

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

#456

Post by phonon »

adventured wrote: post #423
rockinghigh wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Cost basis reporting from brokers to the IRS has been around for several years.

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

#457

Post by jdsully »

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…

The IRS will intentionally not give you any deductions and the cost basis for any capital gains will be $0 regardless of what you paid. The intent of the "return" they file for you is to get you to file a real once since their version will say you owe a lot of money.

This is all explained in the letter they send you should you fail to file.

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

#458

Post by nvarsj »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #124
nvarsj wrote: post #70

Now if only I could file my expat taxes via some public service. The filing requirement in the Obama/Trump era for expats is literally insane, and I'd say even Kafkaesque in the truest sense. The way the government treats its expats w.r.t. tax is inhumane and makes me really dislike being an American.

How did filing requirements change since 2008? I didn’t notice any differences. Also, you can use online tax preparations now as they seem to support 2555 and 1116 forms now, which wasn’t an option in 2008.

I believe 2008 saw the start of mass enforcement of FBAR/FACTA, stricter requirements on foreign banks to report American accounts, etc. Things got much worse with Trump and the Republican congress - with sections 962/965 (transition tax/GILTI tax), and 5471 complexity going through the roof. Anyone with a small business, or any sort of ownership stake, was hit hard by these terribly written laws and their onerous filing requirements. Being an American expat is a giant liability these days, which is sad, because I enjoy being American. Expats will unfortunately never have much of a voice, and I don't expect things to ever improve, only get worse.

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

#459

Post by burfog »

arcticbull wrote: post #412
burfog wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in fact thinking of that idea that "high tax states also pay for literally all the other states", and I pointed out a flaw in that argument. They are underpaying their federal taxes. The voters in those states also happen to be the ones voting for expensive government programs, so it is only fair that they pay. There is no double taxation. You owe tax first to the federal government. The state could let you ded…

How is it fair that my taxes paid to the state of California, a US state, are much less deductible than my taxes paid to foreign governments? No cap on those. The idea is that taxes paid are not really income but rather my cost of doing business, nothing to do with who gets them. It’s like an expense for a business. No matter how high or who they go to they’re not taxed; they’re deducted against income. California ta…

Consider the people of California as a group, not as individuals, seen from the federal perspective. They should not be able to evade federal taxes by spending the money on themselves.

Double taxation and beyond is the norm. You have sales tax, paid to a vendor that pays their own income tax, for goods that were imported with tariffs.

Unless you voted against the California politicians, you should enjoy paying your taxes. Those politicians are why we can't cut expensive government programs at both the state and federal level, and why we must tax heavily to compensate.

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

#460

Post by danans »

jxramos wrote: post #410
arcticbull wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not accounting for the marginal utility of money. The marginal utility of money decays exponentially with respect to income.

It probably does, but why is that relevant? I'm curious about these branching criticisms that come up, another fella above mentioned equal opportunity to earn higher income, you and a few others mention this marginal utility idea. I think these are valid concerns but lumped into taxation break what I think should be an application of the single responsibility principle ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_responsib…

> Once we start trying to equalize along these other dimensions of marginal utility or equality of some other thing we're no longer focused on funding government but enacting some equality/justice endeavor.

Creating equal opportunity and administration of justice are functions of government. You seem to agree:

> Let such endeavors be handled by some other government agency dedicated to those causes,

How would you fund such government agencies except via tax revenue?

> why drag the tax system into the mix and complicate things is what baffles me.

The IRS doesn't administer, i.e. Social Security and Medicare. It is just responsible for collecting the tax needed to fund them. Otherwise each government agency would need it's own revenue collection arm, which makes little sense from an efficiency perspective.

A flat tax set at the very low levels its proponents advocate would effectively defund government programs like Medicare and Social Security, which is often the goal behind such proposals.

Note by the way that social Security tax is today an example of a regressive tax which caps out at around $132,000 of income.

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