IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system • Hacker News Board

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

#201

Post by gedy » Sun, Jan 07, 2024, 1:10 AM UTC

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.

> No, I won't vote for drivable roads because I just payed my taxes, potholes be damned.

I honestly think the issue would instead be people not wanting to pay for the public service pensions for the former pothole-fillers.

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

#202

Post by ac29 » Sun, Jan 07, 2024, 1:23 AM UTC

fbdab103 wrote: post #181

geraldwhen wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Wash sale rules apply to mutual funds and ETFs also, not just directly holding stocks.

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

#203

Post by nerdponx » Sun, Jan 07, 2024, 1:29 AM UTC

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #73

BHSPitMonkey wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He _uses_ populism, but not on issues intended to benefit the common people. He will push policy to help the filing industry, pocket some kickbacks in the form of contracts to his hotels/resorts from those companies and their lobbyists, and then tell the people that this is great news for them (a claim his base will not question).

His administration did streamline the 1040 into one basic form with addendums rather than the senseless three variant system from years past.

He also signed sentencing reform into law. He's not the devil like he's made out to be. He's just a total asshole who spread conspiracy theories to avoid taking responsibility for allowing Covid to spread, damaged America's reputation with its allies, and packed the cabinet and federal courts full of corrupt industry shills, who in turn tried to sabotage those institutions from their appointed positions.

GWB was worse by far. At least Trump didn't start two massive unnecessary 20-year-long foreign wars that ended up doing nothing but slaughtering millions of civilians, thousands of US citizens, wreaking widespread destruction of both human and non-human environments, and cost US taxpayers untold trillions of dollars that could have been spent elsewhere.

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

#204

Post by bombcar » Sun, Jan 07, 2024, 1:33 AM UTC

consp wrote: post #159

leereeves wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Norquist considers a public filing option a tax increase by stealth and opposes it automatically. When phrased that way, it sounds ridiculous. But those are the author's words, not Norquist's or ATR's. What Norquist and ATR want is for people to be aware of taxes. In their words (from the article): "More than any other public policy, the way the government raises revenue—how much, at what rates, under what circumst…

> And even the article admits that making taxes easier to file has the side effect of "decoupling public sentiment and policy changes" (that is, making "tax increases by stealth" easier) How on earth is this possible? Instead of not having any clue, you actually get to see everything. My taxes have been automatic for years and I still have to approve every step of them along the way and I get to see and approve every…

Consider the number of people who think having a bigger withholding and receiving a larger return is free government money.

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

#205

Post by georgyo » Sun, Jan 07, 2024, 1:35 AM UTC

mcherm wrote: post #200

pezezin wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :/

My wife calculates and submits our taxes (here in the US). It typically takes her 40 to 60 hours to complete, and that's after spending around $100 USD on tax preparation software to make it easier. To be fair, our taxes are more complex than many people's (I live in a different state than my employer and we have some stock market investments), but it's still ABSURDLY difficult. And I'm not counting the time needed t…

What?!

I do my taxes myself for my family. I have W2s, K1s, various 1099s for investments, own a home, and deal with carry overs from the previous years.

It takes me about an hour to do it. And then another hour to amend them many months later when I get my actual K1s.

How hard is it to answer 100 questions and copy numbers over from one place to another? W2 box 1 goes to W2 box 1. No I don't own a corn farm. I donated this much to these organizations. I would consider 25% of my rent for my home office.

Both turbo tax and tax hawk will connect to your investment bank and populate all the obscure 1099 stuff there. Dealing with international investment was definitely confusing the first time around, but definitely not 40 hours worth.

40 hours is 8 hours a day for 5 days straight. I don't know what you value yours wife's time at, but if it really takes that long you might be better off paying a CPA a few hundred dollars.

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

#206

Post by r3trohack3r » Sun, Jan 07, 2024, 1:38 AM UTC

lokar wrote: post #198

r3trohack3r wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxes in the US are not due annually. They are due on an ongoing basis. You do not get a net payment. You paid your taxes throughout the year every paycheck. Your employer likely files quarterly. At the end of the year, if you tally up your taxes and figure out you’ve given too much of your money to the government, you get some of your money back. It’s called a refund. Not a payment. I’d put those ongoing taxes throu…

Some very low income workers that get the EIC end up with a net payment.

TIL!

Every tax form I’ve ever filled out has an instruction like:

> Enter the lesser of lines X and Y

when applying deductions and credits to prevent them from exceeding some value.

I’m surprised to learn that the EIC isn’t clamped like this.

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

#207

Post by throw7 » Sun, Jan 07, 2024, 1:39 AM UTC

The weakness is that state tax will need to be filed separately. Some type of smooth hand off with seamless data transfer is hopefully being planned. I'm in NY and interested, but I don't want to fill in data twice (yeah, i'm lazy sue me).

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

#208

Post by snotrockets » Sun, Jan 07, 2024, 1:49 AM UTC

leereeves wrote: post #154

_ihaque wrote: post #98

For anyone interested in why the system looks the way it does, I recommend patio11's insightful recent blog post, which is nominally about payroll systems but ends up discussing the history of taxation in the US because that's the origination of many of these systems: https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/payroll-providers-pow... A relevant quotation for much of the discussion here: > And, relevant to the question o…

> Norquist considers a public filing option a tax increase by stealth and opposes it automatically. When phrased that way, it sounds ridiculous. But those are the author's words, not Norquist's or ATR's. What Norquist and ATR want is for people to be aware of taxes. In their words (from the article): "More than any other public policy, the way the government raises revenue—how much, at what rates, under what circumst…

Norquist don't want people to be aware of taxes. They want to not pay taxes; and believe that if taxes would be citizen friendly, people would be more welcoming to pay them. By making it as obnoxious as possible, they hope to have a society that provides them services by the magic of fairy dust.

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

#209

Post by snotrockets » Sun, Jan 07, 2024, 1:50 AM UTC

hackernewds wrote: post #68

freedomben wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those who don't know, of those 12 states, only 4 actually have income taxes. The other 8 do not. This whole system stinks. The overly complicated tax code, the sleazy corporations making tons of money on it, the entrenched politicians and bureacrats who make a living on it, etc.

We can still appreciate progress. And this is progress. Although if the IRS is gonna audit when I under pay, they technically already know how much I owe. Why not just tell me? Reckon it's since people also over pay, and there's no refunds for doing that.

Because some people believe that if filing taxes would be easy, people won't object to paying them. There's are multiple groups, all donate a lot to certain politicains, and all are hell bent on trying to eradicate taxation.

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

#210

Post by sirsinsalot » Sun, Jan 07, 2024, 1:53 AM UTC

unethical_ban wrote: post #92

If free e-file is so wrong then why is the IRS allowed to distribute forms to citizens with easy instructions? How do people against free e-file justify their anger, unless they are employees of a company leeching off taxpayers' money like Intuit?

Because think of the childr... Oh never mind