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Direct File won't happen in 2026, IRS tells states

nextgov.com

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Re: Direct File won't happen in 2026, IRS tells states

#151

Post by didgeoridoo »

com2kid wrote: post #114
cbgb2 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe lobbyists should be punished by having their skin fully tattooed blue like smurfs. This way, you’d have to really be into lobbying to suffer the tattoo pain and permanent branding.

Lobbyists aren't the problem. They are doing what they are paid to do. If you donate to a large charity, there is a good chance some of that $ goes to lobbying, as it should. (Presumably you want the issues goy care about to be fixed!) If you work at a large company, 100% chance it lobbies, for good reason. Large employers lobby for better mass transit (because parking garages are expensive), more housing (because it…

We recently made a fairly large donation to a children’s hospital to support a specific research program. They directly told us that the highest-impact way to deploy the funds would be to pay lobbyists to try to get earmarks injected into federal bills. Like, >10x expected ROI.

Not all lobbying is straight-up mustache twirling. But it definitely left a bad taste in our mouths.

Re: Direct File won't happen in 2026, IRS tells states

#152

Post by Thorrez »

realusername wrote: post #103
sofixa wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on what? The French tax system is pretty simple. Taxes are high, but simple. The website you use to file your taxes is also pretty simple, and every single field has a button that explains what it is about and in which cases you should write stuff inside. The only annoying parts are if you have accounts outside of France, you have to declare them. And if you get dividends/capital gains in foreign currencies out…

For basic taxes yes but you have annex forms which are 20 pages long in the french system.

20 pages? My 2024 full pdf from turbotax was 644 pages.

Re: Direct File won't happen in 2026, IRS tells states

#153

Post by Thorrez »

RajT88 wrote: post #80
jandrewrogers wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember, Americans have to file taxes separately to the State and Federal government. The Federal government has little authority to dictate State taxes. The paperwork is in part a coordination problem between the State and Federal governments. Basic taxes are trivial in the US if you just work to live, it is essentially one page. However, there is an extremely long and fat tail where the government has no way of kn…

It is not that complex. RSU's or options are pretty straightforward. Deductions can get esoteric if you sold a bunch of stock. Even then, not that bad.

RSUs are not straightforward: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43676698

And options are worse.

Re: Direct File won't happen in 2026, IRS tells states

#154

Post by ethin »

whoooboyy wrote: post #94
foxglacier wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or voters should take some civic responsibility and stop voting for corrupt politicians. Americans seem to be either unable to make their own decisions without paid advertising to direct them or they're afraid of "wasting" their vote on candidates that didn't spend enough on advertising.

Try telling people you voted third party because of a deeply held conviction about not electing corrupt politicians. You will be told you are evil, that you've got an unreasonable/impossible purity bar, that you don't really believe in that deeply held moral conviction actually, that you are worse than the people who voted for the other guy, that you are a utopian idealist, etc etc. Don't get me wrong, I did vote thi…

This problem is only magnified when you consider our voting system. Any ranked voting system inherently runs into Arrow's Impossibility Theorem, which makes what we have right now not exactly democratic. The solution would be to switch to something like approval voting but good luck getting that going.

Re: Direct File won't happen in 2026, IRS tells states

#155

Post by klausa »

Amezarak wrote: post #129
wildzzz wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The IRS already has most of my tax information and knows the tax code. Why must I deal with a third party (and potentially have to pay them) to electronically file my own taxes?

You don't have to pay. https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-form... As for "having most of your tax information", they don't. They know your reported income. You see that on your W2s/1099s/etc. What they don't know is whether or not you had a kid this year, or whether you lost a kid this year, whether you got married or divorced, if your spouse is claiming the kids this year or not, the number or a…

This argument could be put in a museum as a perfect illustration of the "Perfect is the enemy of good" maxim.

Would just relying on the information from your employers cover all possible edge-cases? No.

Would it dramatically simplify the process for (tens?) millions of people? Absolutely.

Re: Direct File won't happen in 2026, IRS tells states

#156

Post by ethbr1 »

didgeoridoo wrote: post #149
bigfishrunning wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to defend the notion of using a CPA a bit. I started using one when I became a partner in a passthrough LLC. I was now self-employed and was responsible for paying taxes on the businesses income as well as my own personal income. Filing that first year was incredibly stressful and time consuming, and I came to the conclusion that sometimes the right thing to do is to hire someone who knows what theyre doing.…

I think GP’s point was that the vast majority of individuals have taxes that look like “one W2, maybe a couple 1099s, and standard deduction.” Many of these people have been scared into using a CPA when they really just need to plug-and-chug a few numbers into tax software. As soon as the words “passthrough LLC” (or “farm” or “S-corp” or “itemize”) are on the table, it’s usually worth it to pay $1,000 for a professio…

Exactly. Tax complexity drives the CPA / tax prep need.

That said, there is a huge swath of America that's being preyed on by strip-mall tax prep, who derive zero benefit from it. (And an industry whose profits ultimately trickle up to the tax prep software companies)

Re: Direct File won't happen in 2026, IRS tells states

#157

Post by EraYaN »

whoooboyy wrote: post #106
petralithic wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more that voting third party in a first-past-the-post voting scheme is systemically pointless.

Parent poster said to stop voting for bad candidates. I said you would be mocked/judged/told off for doing so. And here we are.

Well you should mostly do that in the primaries, when you are down to two, pick the least evil one.

Re: Direct File won't happen in 2026, IRS tells states

#158

Post by NickC25 »

cbgb2 wrote: post #49
grandpoobah wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such a cheap bribe holy crap.

Maybe lobbyists should be punished by having their skin fully tattooed blue like smurfs. This way, you’d have to really be into lobbying to suffer the tattoo pain and permanent branding.

I think that they should have to wear company logos on them full time if they ever take money from a lobbyist until the day they retire.

Every time they speak there should be a visual reminder of who they've taken money from.

Re: Direct File won't happen in 2026, IRS tells states

#159

Post by nsteel »

Amezarak wrote: post #130
com2kid wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am surprised no one has started a go fund me to make a fund just to bribe politicians to fix tax filing. It would be cost effective VS paying for tax prep!

The average HNer, who is fairly literate and well-informed about tax-prep, tends to misunderstand the situation. Using tax preparation software is the cheap (or free!) alternative to what millions of Americans are doing. It was a change for the better for people who didn't do their own taxes. A regular person's taxes can always be done electronically for free, or if they really want, for $20-$100 through tax prep sof…

Was it always possible to do it for free with third-parties, or did that come about in response to things like free-file?

Re: Direct File won't happen in 2026, IRS tells states

#160

Post by beej71 »

Amezarak wrote: post #129
wildzzz wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The IRS already has most of my tax information and knows the tax code. Why must I deal with a third party (and potentially have to pay them) to electronically file my own taxes?

You don't have to pay. https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-form... As for "having most of your tax information", they don't. They know your reported income. You see that on your W2s/1099s/etc. What they don't know is whether or not you had a kid this year, or whether you lost a kid this year, whether you got married or divorced, if your spouse is claiming the kids this year or not, the number or a…

I use free fillable forms. There are zero people on the planet who insist they are remotely as easy as Direct File.
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