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IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax prep giants

washingtonpost.com

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Re: IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax prep giants

#531

Post by deanmoriarty »

whiplash451 wrote: post #496
RajT88 wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On some counts, he is not wrong. It will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Those billions of dollars will be well spent, and may be a net 0 cost for taxpayers after the savings on eFiling. This is a revocation of the license to print money by the tax prep industry.

Billions of dollars is a massive overestimate. It will indeed cost dozens of millions, but billions? Come on. We're not building the F-35 here.

It will absolutely cost more than a billion dollars. Have you seen the cost of other government web services?

Re: IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax prep giants

#532

Post by toomuchtodo »

DigiDigiorno wrote: post #512
whiplash451 wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Billions of dollars is a massive overestimate. It will indeed cost dozens of millions, but billions? Come on. We're not building the F-35 here.

Look up the cost of the healthcare.gov website project* People complain about government contractor costs for a reason *Last I checked it was north of a billion in 2014 dollars

Great example. It was the genesis of the US Digital Service and 18F. Complaints are valid, but so should be recognition that the government took rapid action to course correct. Promises made, promises kept.

https://www.usds.gov/report-to-congress/2016/healthcare-dot-... (US Digital Service: Stabilizing and Improving HealthCare.gov)

https://archive.is/Boysy (Washington Post: White House launches ‘U.S. Digital Service,’ with HealthCare.gov fixer at the helm)

https://www.usds.gov/report-to-congress/2016/projects/

https://www.itdashboard.gov/reports

And a project close to my heart as an identity/auth wonk: https://login.gov

Re: IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax prep giants

#533

Post by mediascreen »

bradfa wrote: post #486

If the federal government really wanted to save money on tax collection, improve the accuracy of tax collection, and drive the tax preparation industry out of business which would save every person and company significant money, then the federal government would just simplify the tax code. Any high school graduate should be smart enough to file their own taxes. That this is not true today is simply insane. For tax in…

I filed my Swedish taxes yesterday. It included private income and investments, my own sole proprietorship as well as dividends from a larger company where I own 10%. It took around 30 minutes including all calculations.

We may have high taxes, but at least they make it easy to pay them...

Re: IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax prep giants

#534

Post by pcurve »

gtop3 wrote: post #108
jandrese wrote: post #16

For what it is worth, even with my medium-complex tax return I have had great results with freetaxusa.com for the past few years. The first couple of times we used it we ran the taxes through TurboTax and FreeTax at the same time and due to better UI the FreeTax version was faster and less confusing. That said, at the end of the process after entering all of the same information in the same places the TurboTax one di…

My taxes have been getting more complex every year, and after this year I no longer trust TurboTax. There was a situation where Turbotax did not recommend a tax form to me, despite me answering questions in such a way that it was clear the tax form would have been impactful and applicable. After I filled out all of the tax information my taxes were clearly off many thousands of dollars. I had to review my tax forms,…

Not only turbotax, but sometimes your brokerage firm (in case Fidelity) screws up calculating exercising options.

I would've owed $20,000 more in taxes because the software failed to account for the amount that was already withheld.

Re: IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax prep giants

#535

Post by onetimeusename »

BigCryo wrote: post #476

The real problem is that Congress is bought and paid for by the tax return industry so that they can create an ever more complicated tax system that forces people to use the tax return industry

I don't think this is true. The total lobbying dollars of H&R Block and Intuit is not really a lot of money[1][2] although it is something. I think there is an incentive for these companies to support more complicated taxes but I doubt they are the cause of complicated taxes. The IRS brings in a lot of profit on extra collections and penalties.[3]

[1]: https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/h-r-block/lobbying?id=D0000...

[2]: https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/intuit-inc/totals?id=D00002...

[3]: https://www.irs.gov/statistics/collections-activities-penalt...

Re: IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax prep giants

#536

Post by ajmurmann »

joshstrange wrote: post #501
ed25519FUUU wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s absolutely zero chance I would trust chatGPT to file my taxes right now

That's fair, though ChatGPT did better than my googling in trying to figure out what I need to file for my LLC. > Kentucky Single Member Limited Liability Company Income Tax Return: As a sole proprietorship LLC, your business income and expenses are reported on your personal tax return (Form 1040), Schedule C. However, Kentucky requires you to file a separate state tax return for your LLC income. You will need to com…

I hired an independent accountant a few years ago who came recommended and had great reviews. I spent more time preparing and delivering documentation for her than I'd spent doing taxes in Turbo Tax. No new insights about tax savings or anything else distinguishable from my Turbo Tax filings came from this. However, she was very excited about my explanation of how a Mega Backdoor Roth works since she apparently hadn't known about it...

Re: IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax prep giants

#538

Post by lern_too_spel »

RajT88 wrote: post #445
rocketbop wrote: post #424

> A direct-to-IRS e-file system is wholly redundant and is nothing more than a solution in search of a problem," said Rick Heineman, a spokesman for Intuit, the company behind TurboTax. "That solution will unnecessarily cost taxpayers billions of dollars and especially harm the most vulnerable Americans." Extraordinary that he could say that sentence with what I assume was a straight face.

On some counts, he is not wrong. It will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Those billions of dollars will be well spent, and may be a net 0 cost for taxpayers after the savings on eFiling. This is a revocation of the license to print money by the tax prep industry.

Not just savings on preparation costs for tax returns in perpetuity but also savings in time for entering bank and wage data already sent to the IRS.

Re: IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax prep giants

#539

Post by chaxor »

morning-coffee wrote: post #500
RajT88 wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On some counts, he is not wrong. It will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Those billions of dollars will be well spent, and may be a net 0 cost for taxpayers after the savings on eFiling. This is a revocation of the license to print money by the tax prep industry.

One way for it not to cost tax payers billions of dollars to drastically simplify the tax code while they are at it. A big part of the cost is directly attributable to the complexity of the rules to be followed to figure out how much to pay based on your circumstances. Throw all that nonsense out and all that should be left is a relatively simple "You made X, so you owe X * rate"

Lay off the Sim City, Herman Cain

Re: IRS tests free e-filing system that could compete with tax prep giants

#540

Post by rc_mob »

rocketbop wrote: post #424

> A direct-to-IRS e-file system is wholly redundant and is nothing more than a solution in search of a problem," said Rick Heineman, a spokesman for Intuit, the company behind TurboTax. "That solution will unnecessarily cost taxpayers billions of dollars and especially harm the most vulnerable Americans." Extraordinary that he could say that sentence with what I assume was a straight face.

all Republicans and a few corporate Democrats will still fall in line and do what he says.
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