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Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing

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Re: Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing

#161

Post by renholder »

rayiner wrote: post #156
renholder wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are no criminal penalties for mistakes on your tax form. Odd, I thought you faced the penalty of perjury[0]? [0] - https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2017/02/15/fudging-y...

Technically, the social security administration gives out social security numbers. But that aside, more than 40% of children don't live with both biological birth parents: https://ifstudies.org/blog/more-than-60-of-u-s-kids-live-wit... . So your automated calculation will get it wrong almost half the time. > All of those tax credits you mention are given by our respective tax agencies when we become employed and/or w…

>Every year, I have to dig up receipts for what we spent on daycare, what we spent out of our HSA accounts, etc. The government doesn't track any of that.

Aside from the daycare costs (as an aside, creche in Ireland is quite decent[0]), isn't all of that is still reported to the IRS? Your HSA isn't sitting in some dark corner that the government doesn't know about, ever since the Patriot Act, yeah?

I'm fairly certain it is reported to the IRS because Americans find getting bank accounts overseas quite cumbersome because your government strong-arms agreements that demand that Americans' overseas bank accounts are reported to the IRS. Surely, more domestic reporting shouldn't come as a surprise or shock.

>I guarantee you that if you make false statements using Ireland's online system for claiming tax credits, you're under penalty of perjury as well.

What do I get for a broken guarantee[1]? :)

This batering back and forth really only arrives at the conclusion that I originally posited:

Those of us in the PAYE system[s] would abhor having to do things the American way and this wasn't meant as an affront (and I apologise if anyone may have taken it that way).

Our tax agencies are responsible for keeping track of these things and the only things we're responsible for is reporting status changes and/or providing receipts for other proofs of burden (such as Independent Contractors who file as Directors of Umbrella Corporations and need to write-off business expenses).

[0] - https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/education/pre_school_e...

[1] - https://www.revenue.ie/en/personal-tax-credits-reliefs-and-e...

Re: Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing

#162

Post by blancheneige »

petschge wrote: post #83
justtopost wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't feel sorry, we are fine. Still the most free people on earth.

You are not, you just have constant propaganda to that effect and you believe it because most of you never leave your country. And that is not just me personal opinion. Going over a (incomplete) sample of freedom indices listed on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_freedom_indices we have: Rank 6 on the Economic Freedom index https://www.fraserinstitute.org/economic-freedom/map?geozone... Rank 17 on the Human Free…

what's more important, freedom or perception of freedom?

Re: Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing

#163

Post by petschge »

shadofx wrote: post #151
ohlookabird wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly, it can vary a lot what people consider free. And therefore, this statement isn't true in general. The US does indeed have a lot of things I would consider freedoms, yes. But in Germany, for instance, I feel it is a great freedom to not have to worry about most healthcare issues, regardless of their income. A freedom (in my perspective) I wouldn't have in the US. There are other issues that fall into that cat…

It's easy to achieve such "freedoms" in a small ethnostate. Not so easy to do in the racially, economically diverse US.

Ah the popular "the US is too large and too diverse to function" excuse. Not that long ago the size and diversity was seen as a unique strength of the US. When did "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" become "societies only work when they are homogeneous"?

Re: Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing

#164

Post by bsimpson »

ensignavenger wrote: post #119
TheHypnotist wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are suitable alternatives? Aren't they the best in class, regardless of how shitty that class is?

I have used Credit Karma Tax since it came out (I think this year was 3 years) and it has been a great product and is free for both federal and state filings. Doesn't support some more complex scenarios, notably partial year and multi-state returns (you can still file your Federal return with it, though). Edited to add additional details as to what isn't supported.

Have you compared to TurboTax? Is one better than the other at finding deductions?

Re: Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing

#165

Post by westmeal »

lenticular wrote: post #44
westmeal wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why isn't a large tax return a good thing? Is it because the tax return is basically what they have taken from your income already?

Yeah, your tax refund was an interest-free loan to the government.

Thank you

Re: Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing

#166

Post by toast0 »

derekp7 wrote: post #158
toast0 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not as of tax year 2018. SALT deduction is capped at $10k, standard deduction for married filing joint is $24k. I don't think you can get $14k worth of deductible mortgage interest, but I guess maybe. If you're filing single with a mortgage, it seems more likely to end up with itemized, still.

Do you think that this change will be a precursor to getting rid of the mortgage interest deduction altogether? By making it so that most people no longer benefit from it, there should be little opposition from throwing it out.

Seems like probably it's on the way out; they reduced the eligible mortgage balance from $1m to $750k too. Limiting it while rates are still lowish also reduces the amount of impact. I expect some of this is feeding back into housing prices by now, though; so maybe expect some push back.

Re: Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing

#168

Post by sntran »

derekp7 wrote: post #123
TheHypnotist wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are suitable alternatives? Aren't they the best in class, regardless of how shitty that class is?

Read the 1040 instructions, and follow them. This works if you don't have a complicated situation, such as business income or if you need to calculate penalties for shortfalls on quarterly filings. Have a CPA do your taxes periodically, then use last year's taxes as a guide for the current year. Typically what I do is write a small program that asks the questions in the 1040 form, then gives me a print out of what go…

I used to have this idea of a AI chat bot that would ask common questions such as name, address, dependencies, etc... and return a filled 1040 PDF. Turned out I spent more time writing codes to handle the PDF than focusing on the chat bot functionality...

Regardless, I would pay to have such a service.

Re: Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing

#169

Post by marcosdumay »

mercutio2 wrote: post #75
teekert wrote: post #64

I feel sorry for people living in the US, how can they call this a democracy anymore? Demos means people. You are ruled by companies at this point.

Good thing they don’t call it a democracy! It’s a republic. There’s a meaningful difference.

"Public" also means people, it's just from another language.

One name is about the act of governing and the other is about the property of the governing body.

Re: Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing

#170

Post by bzbarsky »

toast0 wrote: post #149
maimeowmeow wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a mortgage, and paid state youd easily be over 2x the standard deductions

Not as of tax year 2018. SALT deduction is capped at $10k, standard deduction for married filing joint is $24k. I don't think you can get $14k worth of deductible mortgage interest, but I guess maybe. If you're filing single with a mortgage, it seems more likely to end up with itemized, still.

> I don't think you can get $14k worth of deductible mortgage interest

Sure you can. Even with the new $750k cap, and if you assume a (very low; chances are it's higher by a factor of 1.5 or 2) rate of 2%, you can get to $15k.

If you assume a 4% rate, then you get to $14k with a $350k mortgage. In various coastal-metro markets that's basically an entry-level house.

The other common itemized deduction is charitable contributions. Unfortunately, I see lots of "average" data for those, when what would be most useful here is median data: the average is presumably heavily skewed by wealthier or higher-income taxpayers. But as an anecdote, I know multiple people who drop $20 in the collection plate every week when they go to church; that's ~$1k right there.

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