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IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

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Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#161

Post by PaywallBuster »

mamcx wrote: post #131
wespad wrote: post #19

https://www.freetaxusa.com/ and their parent company https://www.taxhawk.com/ They charge $14.99 for the state filing. Usually a coupon code available. Or go to the state's website (CA at least), and file that for free, too. But for the convenience of not having to input my info again, I'll pay their fee.

This could work for deal with an LLC former from abroad? Not us citizen?

I think foreign owned LLCs need someone to submit on their behalf (CPA or something)

I've looked at https://www.trybookmate.co/tax previously

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#162

Post by cbo100 »

andreskytt wrote: post #159

Former head of IT at a tax authority of a small EU nation here. We get 95+ percent of online filing for private income tax (and have for 20 years), of course there is no fee, and you can have your refund on your account in a few hours. The whole process takes around 30 seconds. AMA.

Same in Australia, well except our refund usually takes around a week.

And it gets better every year too. More and more data automatically pre-filled. More and more of the form intelligently hidden unless you need it.

And yet every year I’m blown away by these stories from the US about all the hoops they need to jump through just to submit a simple tax return.

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#163

Post by nly »

It's crazy to me that all Americans have to do their taxes every year and are charged for this.

Many people in the UK go their entire lives without ever interacting with HMRC (our equivalent of the IRS)

Self Assessment (doing taxes every year) takes about 20-30 minutes and that's when I'm claiming tax reliefs

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#164

Post by andsoitis »

UncleEntity wrote: post #107
bandyaboot wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m guessing the vast majority of people that hate the IRS don’t have any reason based on personal experience. They are people that believe things like “The IRS is hiring 87,000 new armed enforcement agents”.

Or people like my stepdad’s cousin who took ten years to get the money back that they paid (because of a mistake on the IRS’s part due to having the same name but different SSN as a tax dodger) so they didn’t get their assets/house seized. This was before the kinder, gentler IRS but still.

> took ten years to get the money back that they paid

How much did they pay?

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#165

Post by Amezarak »

azinman2 wrote: post #62
tekla wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a standard 1 job W2, that is... literally what already happens, except even with less steps, since they already took the money out of my paycheck. The 1 job W2 literally takes 15 minutes to fill out if so, and it is pretty much signing off that you didn't make a million dollars on the side that the IRS doesn't know about.

Except in the US you still have to file your taxes. They might be the simplest to do, but you still have to. Which typically means people end up using turbotax etc, and paying for the product. Spain's equivalent is basically 'we know you have a kid and this income so here you so. just sign on the dotted line'

The US federal government (and particularly the IRS) doesn't know what kids you do or don't have.

Millions of American kids vanished when the IRS decided that to claim a kid you must provide a valid SSN. [1]

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/declaration-of-non-depende....

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#166

Post by londgine »

gavinhoward wrote: post #125

Relative of an employee of freetaxusa.com (TaxHawk). My relative is one of the people working on Free File. If you have any issues, don't hesitate to contact me [1]. Free File is something they are deadly serious about because they know Intuit, TurboTax, et al are scummy, and well, it brings in business. But Free File can be complicated (my relative complains about it a lot), so there may be issues. Please let me kno…

Does freetaxusa support expats? I've been using a CPA since I couldn't find a website that was better. All of the websites offering to file, charge around $500.

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#167

Post by londgine »

Every year I ask, and every year I'm disappointed, but does any good solution exist for expats? I know I shouldn't be paying taxes, since I earn under the exception limit. But I don't know all the forms I should fill out, and all of the websites dedicated to expats are expensive, almost $500.

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#168

Post by andsoitis »

sofixa wrote: post #154
edgyquant wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering they basically do this for the simplest tax forms: why are we supposed to assume Spain has a better system again? Is this just the typical “European = better” stance so prevalent online?

> Is this just the typical “European = better” stance so prevalent online? Yes and is often the case, fully justified. When it's the time to file taxes, you go to a government website that tells you all it knows about you - inheritances, donations, salaries, etc etc. You can add stuff if you want (e.g. special deductions), but for most people it's a matter of next next OK Finished. On a government website everyone kn…

While tax filing in the US might be more Byzantine, I’m happy with the trade off of paying lower taxes, relative to most countries with such streamlined taxes.

Put differently, if I’m paying very high tax rates, of course I’ll be doubly pissed off if it is also arduous to file.

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#169

Post by andsoitis »

8note wrote: post #110
tekla wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The IRS is not actually a godly being that has omniscient knowledge of every transaction that ever goes on and in the future. How is the IRS supposed to figure out how much money to take away from your W2 when you could get a billion dollar windfall at the end of the year and massively change tax bracket?

I put in my social security number upon accepting that windfall, and the lottery forwards it to the IRS?

Now you need to convince Americans to hand out their SSN.

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#170

Post by andsoitis »

mindslight wrote: post #79
neilv wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That company lobbies to make tax returns as miserable as they can, a bit like a protection racket. But stealing their product doesn't help -- it only relieves pressure to smack them down, or takes business away from their competitors.

TurboTax's "competitors" are part of the same protection racket. Taking away business from any/all of them is a win. I do wish my approach were more scalable so that lots of people would do it. But for now I'll have to be content with personally not supporting the racket. Also, piracy is not stealing.

> Also, piracy is not stealing.

How is piracy different from shoplifting shrink wrap software from a store?

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