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IRS Direct File to open to all 50 states and D.C. for 2025 tax season

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Re: IRS Direct File to open to all 50 states and D.C. for 2025 tax season

#41

Post by kindatrue »

danans wrote: post #24
jawns wrote: post #12

The Taxpayers Protection Alliance spokesperson quoted at the bottom says: > Private tax services "have every incentive to find the deductions that will yield them the best return," Zupkus said, adding that the IRS wants "to extract as much as possible from the taxpayer." I think it's worthwhile to acknowledge that there are indeed slightly different incentives involved when it comes to the private sector handling tax…

> Zupkus said, adding that the IRS wants "to extract as much as possible from the taxpayer." The IRS doesn't want your tax dollars, they are just the mechanism by which the federal government enforces tax collection according to the law. I've gotten refunded by the IRS for taxes they found that I overpaid years ago. Neither I nor my accountant did anything to initiate that. I'm not alone in getting an unprompted refu…

I've met people who thought that the IRS makes money from collecting taxes - like that employees there get a cut.

Re: IRS Direct File to open to all 50 states and D.C. for 2025 tax season

#42

Post by jandrese »

foota wrote: post #35
Someone1234 wrote: post #4

How volatile is this to the political winds? As the article makes clear this was largely done with the support of the current incumbent, but what if the next one is more amenable to TurboTax's ideas? That seems to be an ongoing headache in the US with executive branch created programs, courts can just immediately squish them or political winds can change, then they're suddenly gone. Something like this, in order to b…

I think once it's been in place for a year it will be very hard for them to take it away.

Virginia had a dead simple and free e-File system for years. It cost the state almost nothing to maintain and worked wonderfully. The tax companies were able to bribe a few members of the legislature to have it killed with relatively little fuss, and now Virginians pay some of the highest rates for e-filing at the state level.

Re: IRS Direct File to open to all 50 states and D.C. for 2025 tax season

#43

Post by Alupis »

rqtwteye wrote: post #20
MichaelNolan wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How volatile is this to the political winds? Very. Had the GOP won the senate in 2022, this would have probably been cut already. Depending on how this November goes the policy could definitely be reversed. > Something like this, in order to be permanent, needs congressional approval. This program did come from Congress. It was apart of the inflation reduction act.

It's a huge problem that when the opposition comes into power, they immediately try to revert and undermine what the previous party did. Not because of merit, but just because of partisanship. So you end up with a lot of programs that get started and after a while get repealed or maintained badly. This costs the country a lot of money. The ACA is a classical example. Instead of improving it or proposing a real replac…

Perhaps people should stop treating the president like a king, and you know, actually pass laws the way our government was designed to work...

Re: IRS Direct File to open to all 50 states and D.C. for 2025 tax season

#44

Post by vel0city »

mrangle wrote: post #27
mrangle wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The people who are downvoting my "disagree" are likely assuming that I am speaking philosophically. I'm not. Philosophically, sure: the purpose of the government is to serve the people. A philosophy written specifically for the consumption of people. But now I'm speaking about its practical purpose. What a system produces is always its purpose.

Even with your definition of "What a system produces is always its purpose" is still usually incorrect. The US hasn't "turned a profit" (had a budget surplus) for the majority of the past what, 100 years? Lots of places don't tend to run long-term budget surpluses either. Governments generally don't "turn a profit".

Re: IRS Direct File to open to all 50 states and D.C. for 2025 tax season

#45

Post by schmidtleonard »

rqtwteye wrote: post #20
MichaelNolan wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How volatile is this to the political winds? Very. Had the GOP won the senate in 2022, this would have probably been cut already. Depending on how this November goes the policy could definitely be reversed. > Something like this, in order to be permanent, needs congressional approval. This program did come from Congress. It was apart of the inflation reduction act.

It's a huge problem that when the opposition comes into power, they immediately try to revert and undermine what the previous party did. Not because of merit, but just because of partisanship. So you end up with a lot of programs that get started and after a while get repealed or maintained badly. This costs the country a lot of money. The ACA is a classical example. Instead of improving it or proposing a real replac…

In 1991 the ACA was the conservative proposal, but in 2010 when it was passed under the Obama administration it suddenly became communist marxism. Sigh.

Re: IRS Direct File to open to all 50 states and D.C. for 2025 tax season

#46

Post by thatguy0900 »

Alupis wrote: post #43
rqtwteye wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a huge problem that when the opposition comes into power, they immediately try to revert and undermine what the previous party did. Not because of merit, but just because of partisanship. So you end up with a lot of programs that get started and after a while get repealed or maintained badly. This costs the country a lot of money. The ACA is a classical example. Instead of improving it or proposing a real replac…

Perhaps people should stop treating the president like a king, and you know, actually pass laws the way our government was designed to work...

Congress honestly seems to have completely shut down as a body able to accomplish anything. The president is all we have

Re: IRS Direct File to open to all 50 states and D.C. for 2025 tax season

#50

Post by whimsicalism »

nly wrote: post #28

As a Brit it's baffling that this is even an issue. I filed my taxes online with HMRC for free this year (we call it Self Assessment), it took 20 minutes, and I received a 4 figure refund in ~2 weeks directly in to my bank account.

the tax difficulty in the US is overstated, we have plenty of services that will let you do it for 20 minutes for free. the most popular one is obnoxious and tries to upsell you often, but there are alternatives and you don't need to pay
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