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

nytimes.com

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

#181

Post by fbdab103 »

geraldwhen wrote: post #99
CrendKing wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea what "wash sale" is. I only heard that term when I was reading the help page in TurboTax, which I'm effectively forced to use. Seriously, I doubt there is more than 100k people in US that have this "wash sale" any year. I'm so tired of every time someone suggests automatic tax filling, there is always one guy bring up some tax term that 99.99% people never heard of. Sure, if auto tax filling doesn't so…

Literally anyone that owns stock could generate a wash sale.

Only 15% of Americans directly own any stock[0]. Vast majority of people who do is done through a 401k or other retirement vehicle.

[0] https://usafacts.org/articles/what-percentage-of-americans-o...

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

#182

Post by sensanaty »

crazydoggers wrote: post #13
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.

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 will never in my life comprehend how lobbying isn't just bribery with extra steps. The only distinction between bribing a cop to get out of a speeding ticket and a megacorp lobbying random politicians is that the megacorp has much deeper pockets, absolutely ridiculous

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

#183

Post by bubbleRefuge »

worik wrote: post #139
bubbleRefuge wrote: post #136

[flagged]

> Federal income taxes are unfair and unnecessary. Since it had been demonstrated (via MMT) that taxes do not fund the Federal government, That is incorrect MMT does not propose that the state can fund itself without tax, except for some seriously deluded proponents who have lost their grip on reality The use of resources by the state requires those resources are unavailable to other actors Money is a slippery and an…

2 of the founders have said we don't need income taxes

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

#184

Post by toomuchtodo »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #112
yokem55 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The agents being hired are mostly just support agents answering the phone. And on net the investment in improving the IRS is a net positive on revenue because they can more effectively go after folk who are cheating. It's amazing how some folks will be ardently opposed to "defunding the police" ... except for the tax police.

it's unpopular because IRS only goes after low-level tax cheats, not the already-rich ones who steal far more, and funding them more doesn't change that priority. similar to police.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/20/politics/irs-millionaire-tax-... (“IRS has collected $160 million in back taxes by cracking down on millionaires”)

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-announces-sweeping-effort-t... (“IRS announces sweeping effort to restore fairness to tax system with Inflation Reduction Act funding; new compliance efforts focused on increasing scrutiny on high-income, partnerships, corporations and promoters abusing tax rules on the books”)

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

#185

Post by tpmoney »

consp wrote: post #180
tpmoney wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two psychological mechanisms I can think of for this: It's one of the reasons why every company in the world wants you on auto pay. It's a lot easier to keep you as a customer through the price hikes if it's only a line item on your bank statement rather than an explicit payment you're making every month. If most people are the same every year, then a small increase from one year to the next barely gets noticed becau…

> It pre-assumes the amount owed is correct (in both the calculated and the policy sense) and sets the expectation that you probably owe whatever the pre-calculated amount is. Considering the penalties for getting it wrong. Simply no. You assume it is correct if it matches the data you have, not by default. What it does do is stop you from having to calculate the nitty whitty parts of the statements when the data fro…

>Considering the penalties for getting it wrong. Simply no. You assume it is correct if it matches the data you have, not by default.

We live in a world where people routinely borrow from "tribal lending services" at 500% APR. Where they buy a car on the monthly payment value without consideration for APR or loan term. Where an entire financial crisis was caused in large part by people taking out bad loans they knew (or should have known) were impossible for them to service properly despite the consequences. Where people don't review their own pay stubs only to discover their employer has been cheating them for years or has improperly withheld taxes. And a world where despite the existence of both the 1040EZ and e-filing people still find tax paperwork confusing and too hard.

Forgive me if I don't share your optimism on whether most tax payers would assume the answer the government got was correct or not, regardless of the consequences. It's also not an unreasonable assumption either, why in the world would you want a system where you couldn't assume the result was correct most of the time?

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

#186

Post by seanmcdirmid »

ghaff wrote: post #169
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m surprised they can’t just the cost basis directly.

In years/decades past figuring out cost basis through options and acquisitions could be a real nightmare. To be honest there have been times when I’ve thrown my hands up and just come up with a plausible average. But as I wrote, I think things are mostly pretty good these days. But who knows with things like RSUs you have limited visibility into.

We both work at big techs , so first world problem. But her company grants RSUs and sells stock to cover income tax, mine gives less stock and grants cash to cover taxes instead. Which is why I was surprised she was getting 1040s at all. But the stock is sold to cover tax, since a stock grant is taxed as ordinary income, that this generates a 1040 with a cost basis of zero is crazy.

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

#187

Post by leereeves »

consp wrote: post #160
koolba wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "More than any other public policy, the way the government raises revenue—how much, at what rates, under what circumstances, from whom, and for whom—has the greatest impact on our economy’s performance." A perfect world would have people writing a check for their entire annual tax just before stepping into the voting booth.

> A perfect world would have people writing a check for their entire annual tax just before stepping into the voting booth. That would definitely be a horrible idea. No, I won't vote for drivable roads because I just payed my taxes, potholes be damned. And afterwards complain about the potholes anyway.

I think most people would still vote for drivable roads, and that there are a lot of government policies that could be eliminated before drivable roads are even on the table.

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

#188

Post by rufus_foreman »

PopAlongKid wrote: post #131
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…

>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 They do have such a portal which does some of the things you list and several other things too. https://www.irs.gov/payments/your-online-account

Last time I tried to use it, they wanted me to take a selfie and send it to them in order to be able to pay estimated taxes.

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

#189

Post by 1905 »

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…

[dead]

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

#190

Post by pezezin »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #179
neilkk wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

patio11 has a huge and well known bias here, which is that he wants to claim, not necessarily with evidence, that all inefficiency is caused by governments and not by the private sector. A comparison of tax filing in the United States with other countries, including those where governments are much bigger and more interventionist, leads to a different conclusion.

Indeed! Japan’s system is very efficient, and he has lived there for some time, so he should be familiar. Similarly, it took the US forever to implement an instant payment system (commercial banks built Zelle via Early Warning Systems and RTP via The Clearinghouse, and the Fed finally built FedNow after Congress directed them to in order to ensure universal access) while India and Brazil rapidly rolled out their impl…

Really? I live in Japan, last month I had to fill my taxes, and I found the process to be really convoluted and annoying compared to my home country (Spain). Likewise, banks feel really obsolete and inefficient here.

I shudder to imagine how bad the American system is to make Japan look good :/

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