Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

irs.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 256 posts

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#241

Post by refurb »

Rury wrote: post #111
refurb wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the IRS doesn't even have access to things like cost-basis for capital gains, no way I'd trust them to complete it correctly. They'll likely just assume best case scenario for them (and worst for you).

That hasn't been the case for me. I end up owing come tax time every year, and yet every time, after having paid what is owed, months later they give me a small refund anyways. Now I know where I can save money on my taxes, and I've done it before, but it's the savings are so small that it's not even worth the time doing. Yet, it's about what they give me in the refund. Why didn't they just keep it, especially given…

How do you know the IRS is calculating it right?

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#242

Post by alistairSH »

Beached wrote: post #204
maxerickson wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number of people that it would work for would easily justify the cost of the IRS sending out prepared taxes. That some small sliver of people have complicated taxes or want to itemize their expenses is not a good reason to complicate the activity for the majority that have straightforward taxes. And then if you want to simplify, just eliminate deductions altogether (and shift brackets to compensate). Eliminating…

it isn't only itemizing for general deduction. there are a LOT of people who claim other tax incentives outside of that. I have claimed something almost every year in the past 15 years. and almost every friend I have does the same. if you are self employed or have a home, it is super common to claim items on taxes that the IRS doesn't know about currently. but yes, they should just eliminate all deductions and shift…

Most years, everything on my taxes is based on a form some financial institution sent me. Investments info, mortgage info, salary info, 401k/IRA info, charitable contributions.

Why is all this being sent to me and not the IRS?

If it is also being sent to the IRS, why isn’t the IRS sending me a pre-filled “return” that I can simply send back with a “Agree” checked?

Yes, there are years I have things that are unexpected/unusual. I’m happy to add that stuff to the above pre-filled form and submit it. But it’s absolutely infuriating that every April I have to spend a day sorting through a pile of paperwork and stress about whether or not I’ve forgotten something or gotten something wrong (or, these days, pay a CPA to do it for me, even thought there’s absolutely nothing unusual about my tax situation).

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#243

Post by azinman2 »

andsoitis wrote: post #168
sofixa wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Except that’s not “the trade off.” As been discussed many a time on HN, companies like Intuit lobby the government to keep it full of friction.

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#244

Post by ac29 »

neilv wrote: post #31
paxys wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, paying 20 bucks just for a better user interface and a step-by-step guide is absolutely worth the money.

Is the reality not just paying 20 bucks, but also paying having your data both sold and eventually also breached?

It is illegal for a tax preparer to share your tax data without consent. I have certainly used tax software in the past that asked for this consent, though.

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#245

Post by rwmj »

itake wrote: post #208
rwmj wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self Assessment is definitely not "20-30 minutes". Anyway what's crazy is that we have to do this at all. In normal countries the government calculates the tax you owe based on information filed by your employer, bank etc, and then sends you the bill. If you agree with it, you pay that. You are required to do no work at all unless you want to dispute the bill.

How do you track income that wasn’t from your employer? Like rent? How do you track deductions like installing a heat pump?

You'd have to ask how they do this in one of the European countries that has this kind of system. I suppose for rent you might need to register the rental (not a bad idea for landlords to be registered), and for the heat pump perhaps the installer would claim the discount. As I don't live in one of those countries, I don't know exactly how it works.

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#246

Post by UncleEntity »

andsoitis wrote: post #164
UncleEntity wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

IDK, a bunch?

I just know they had the money and didn’t want the IRS to harass them while it got straightened out so paid it.

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#247

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK »

daveguy wrote: post #199
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto is simple. Anything mined/airdroped is ordinary income, anything bought and later sold is capital gains.

If you held it for over year. Otherwise it's income of sale price - cost basis. Don't know about fees. I'm not an accountant, but I do know you have to hold an asset for at least 1 yr to count it as capital gains.

less than a year is called short term capital gains, it's basically same as ordinary income, except can be negative )

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#248

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK »

aceazzameen wrote: post #210
ashconnor wrote: post #82

Also https://cash.app/taxes

That used to be the original Credit Karma (the tax filing side). I liked them when they didn't require a mobile app to use their service. At least it helped me discover FreeTaxUSA.

Original Credit Karma was nice, but they went overboard with geolocation: didn't allow to log in into my US account while in Canada, so had to stop using them.

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#249

Post by joxel »

IgorPartola wrote: post #202
joxel wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the reality is that they could automatically calculate taxes for >>50% of households?

Except they don’t know who they can and can’t do this for, so the entire exercise is a bit useless.

Not for the >>50% of people who they know. The IRS just mails you their projection and you can amend it if necessary. It clearly is less work for the citizenry.

Re: IRS Free File: Do Your Taxes for Free

#250

Post by aceazzameen »

ashconnor wrote: post #238
aceazzameen wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That used to be the original Credit Karma (the tax filing side). I liked them when they didn't require a mobile app to use their service. At least it helped me discover FreeTaxUSA.

I filled out my forms on my laptop. I don't think you have to use the app beyond for logging in.

That's the thing. I don't even want to use an app to log in. There's no reason it can't be a full browser experience.
Post reply on HN