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

IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 338 posts

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#51

Post by nerdponx »

LargeTomato wrote: post #45
crazydoggers wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why we still have the income tax system that we do. It’s a $14 billion a year industry. I’ve talked to people who work the lobbying system very hard. There’s lots of wining and dining to make sure no one messes with the complexity of the system. We need more people who are immune to lobbying in government positions. We’ll see how this goes.. depending on the next election cycle this will either get quashed qu…

I worked at a government "lab" (MITRE) that maintained the IRS system. The system was allegedly so complicated that if the tax code and the software conflicted, the software won. The stack is legacy and intentionally on minimal life support.

> intentionally on minimal life support

Key word: "intentionally".

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#52

Post by bmoxb »

MenhirMike wrote: post #34
crazydoggers wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why we still have the income tax system that we do. It’s a $14 billion a year industry. I’ve talked to people who work the lobbying system very hard. There’s lots of wining and dining to make sure no one messes with the complexity of the system. We need more people who are immune to lobbying in government positions. We’ll see how this goes.. depending on the next election cycle this will either get quashed qu…

Which is really the main issue. Offering a more accessible free version to file taxes is great, but the real problem is the need to file taxes at all for a lot of people. The IRS already knows the relevant info: Your employer sends W-2 information, your bank and broker are sending the various 1099 forms for interest, dividends, stock sale gains/losses, etc. Same for your spouse and kids/dependents. Don't even need to…

That is how it works in many (most?) countries already - the US is an outlier in requiring every citizen to handle their own taxes.

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#53

Post by nerdponx »

arbuge wrote: post #50

I have a hard time understanding why the IRS doesn't at least have a basic web portal for individuals and businesses to do simple things like update addresses, send secure correspondence, check on the status of correspondence, file forms electronically, etc. A lot of paper forms and letters, human resources and time could be saved with such a system, even if it doesn't actually provide for any tax computations itself…

The answer is a combination of industry lobbying (see elsewhere in this thread) and partisan politics that result in deliberately under-funding the IRS (for a general notion, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast, and for more directly relevant events see https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-irs-was-gutted)

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#56

Post by nerdponx »

ttyprintk wrote: post #36
HarryHirsch wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Trump is a populist. "Get your taxes done with me for free instead of HR Block charging you a couple hundreds" is a low-hanging fruit.

It makes more sense that his party maintains the image that paying taxes is arduous and better left to technicians (short guys wearing yarmulkes in Trumps view). Those who can avoid burdensome bureaucracy are “smart”, presumably tall and yarmulke-less.

This is pretty much how I see it too. I agree that he's an opportunist, but there's still tremendous political value in sticking to the Republican party line on this issue, even if he personally does not benefit from lobbying.

However I do believe that he would flip sides if it seemed like popular sentiment was flipping, and he would claim that he's been in favor of it all along. If this program is successful, that might actually happen, and of course he'll be sworn in by the time the broader program is rolled out, and he'll take credit for it while finding some way to blame Biden for not having it sooner (even though he had 4 years of his own to do it and took no action).

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#57

Post by loceng »

k2enemy wrote: post #3

> A spokeswoman for Intuit, Tania Mercado, criticized the direct file project as a “half-baked solution” and a waste of taxpayer money. “The direct file scheme is a solution in search of a problem,” she said. Wow, I thought that Intuit would have gone for a little more subtlety.

Industrial complexes, all of the obvious ones, have gone too far; it only takes one to push for unfair-unreasonable terms.

The next step of citizen's countering Intuit's particular complex is for automatic tax filing to occur.

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#58

Post by nerdponx »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #14
webwielder2 wrote: post #4

[flagged]

"Gig workers are not elegible" - that's the Biden loophole written in there straghtaway. Nowadays anyone able-bodied and on low income has at least one gig work app installed on their phone - Uber, Doordash, Amazon Flex, you name it! If the political system is corrupt, it's unreasonable to assume that one party is better than the other.

Are you alleging that this restriction is meant to exclude low-income workers from the trial?

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#60

Post by jethro_tell »

arbuge wrote: post #50

I have a hard time understanding why the IRS doesn't at least have a basic web portal for individuals and businesses to do simple things like update addresses, send secure correspondence, check on the status of correspondence, file forms electronically, etc. A lot of paper forms and letters, human resources and time could be saved with such a system, even if it doesn't actually provide for any tax computations itself…

Because they are constantly under resourced so rich people can use the 'IRS sucks' line to get everyone else on board with their ability to do tax evasion.
Post reply on HN