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Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states

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Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states

#231

Post by asdff »

Analemma_ wrote: post #9

I've been using FreeTaxUSA for a while now to do my taxes, and I like it very much. (If you use TurboTax or H&R Block or something, I strongly recommend giving FreeTaxUSA a look). I was sort of wondering if the IRS would just buy them wholesale and use that as the free file software, since it's already "finished" and making another one would be duplicated effort. But is there precedent for that, the government just b…

There is no secret sauce with free tax usa or any of the others. It asks you questions and auto fills a pdf that ends up being surprisingly short in the end. Setting aside for a moment the window dressing on the ui and having to support all these concurrent users and their accounts, what it actually does is so simple. It really feels like the sort of site where the would make a good assignment for an intro to html class.

Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states

#232

Post by loeg »

II2II wrote: post #212
loeg wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can fill out the forms manually for free? It just sucks.

It's not that it sucks, it is error prone. Completely ignore a knowledge of tax law for a moment. Data has to be copied from one form to another, copied for calculation (whether you do it on paper or with a calculator), copied from one line to another, and finally copied from the form into the government's tax software. Each step produces the potential for error. Properly written software does not have the same poten…

It sounds like you're agreeing with me that it sucks.

Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states

#233

Post by junar »

dpifke wrote: post #125
Anechoic wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

protects you from liability for incorrectly filing your taxes. In practice, it's not really needed. The thing is (and I realize that it's not the general perception) if you sincerely try to file your taxes and you screw up, the IRS will generally work with you to fix things. Sure, if you go all sovereign-citizen/Wesley Snipes and refuse to acknowledge taxes they'll kick in the door and take all your stuff. But if you…

They're even required to waive the penalties if you "acted with reasonable cause and good faith": https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/chapter-I/subchapter-A...

"Reasonable cause" is a pretty hard bar to meet. [1]

> The following factors don't generally qualify as valid reasons for failure to file or pay a tax on time:

> Lack of knowledge. You're responsible for knowing or getting advice on how to file returns and pay or deposit taxes on time. This includes filing requirements, deadlines and amounts you owe.

> Mistakes and oversights. You're responsible for making sure your tax returns, payments and deposits are correct and on time. In certain cases, reasonable cause may apply to a mistake if additional facts and circumstances show that you tried to comply with tax law.

A much easier path is first time abatement. [2] Though of course as the name indicates, it can't be used multiple years in a row.

[1] https://www.irs.gov/payments/penalty-relief-for-reasonable-c...

[2] https://www.irs.gov/payments/penalty-relief-due-to-first-tim...

Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states

#234

Post by dpifke »

junar wrote: post #233
dpifke wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're even required to waive the penalties if you "acted with reasonable cause and good faith": https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/chapter-I/subchapter-A...

"Reasonable cause" is a pretty hard bar to meet. [1] > The following factors don't generally qualify as valid reasons for failure to file or pay a tax on time: > Lack of knowledge. You're responsible for knowing or getting advice on how to file returns and pay or deposit taxes on time. This includes filing requirements, deadlines and amounts you owe. > Mistakes and oversights. You're responsible for making sure your…

That's for failure to file or pay on time.

The bar for a mistake (assuming you filed and paid on time) is much lower, see the next section, "Accuracy-Related Penalties," on the first link you posted: https://www.irs.gov/payments/penalty-relief-for-reasonable-c...

Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states

#235

Post by mtgentry »

radlad wrote: post #109
tombert wrote: post #50

This is great news; no matter how restricted it may be initially, I think having a "guaranteed-free" tax filing system will be great for most people, especially lower-income people. The private companies have demonstrated pretty clearly that they will do everything they can to avoid people actually having free tax filing, and while ~$50-100 might not seem like a ton of money, keep in mind that at the current United S…

FWIW, FreeTaxUSA[0] is much cheaper than Intuit and has worked great for me the past few years. I find it slightly easier than TurboTax, in fact. [0] https://www.freetaxusa.com/

I second this, FreeTaxUSA is great.

Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states

#236

Post by dpifke »

mindslight wrote: post #175
dpifke wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Beancount, I use metadata tags in my chart of accounts for the tax form and line number, e.g. 2017-01-01 open Expenses:GA:Insurance USD tax_form: "1040 Schedule C" tax_line: "15" tax_description: "Insurance (other than health)" I can then report my transactions based on the tax_form and tax_line attribute, which gets me much of the way there. I still have to do the math on derived lines on the forms, but this at…

Interesting idea, but wouldn't you be better off creating abstract categories and then assigning/verifying where they go at tax time? Line numbers can change from year to year.

Those are abstract categories (accounts). Transactions get assigned to accounts, then (at tax time) accounts get assigned to forms and line numbers.

Remapping a transaction to a different tax line item (e.g. if tax law changes, as it did this year with § 174) is just a matter of updating the account metadata. This is much more convenient than having to go back through the books and reassign transactions to different accounts.

It's plain text in Git, so I have the usual tools available. For example, `git diff` can tell me what changed between tax years, and I can check out a copy of my books as they existed at the time a past year's return was filed.

Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states

#237

Post by tiltowait »

I'm glad. I've used Cash App Taxes the past few years, and while it's free (including state) and an easy interface, I'm well aware I'm the product. Presumably/hopefully that will not be the case with this new system. I'm in one of the listed states, so I'm ... not exactly looking forward to trying it out, but definitely curious!

Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states

#238

Post by [deleted] »

radlad wrote: post #109
tombert wrote: post #50

This is great news; no matter how restricted it may be initially, I think having a "guaranteed-free" tax filing system will be great for most people, especially lower-income people. The private companies have demonstrated pretty clearly that they will do everything they can to avoid people actually having free tax filing, and while ~$50-100 might not seem like a ton of money, keep in mind that at the current United S…

FWIW, FreeTaxUSA[0] is much cheaper than Intuit and has worked great for me the past few years. I find it slightly easier than TurboTax, in fact. [0] https://www.freetaxusa.com/

[deleted]

Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states

#239

Post by bluGill »

tomcam wrote: post #206
bluGill wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quit doing paper forms ~10 years ago when I missed coping line 12c from form 5678-e to line 34-f of form 9876-k. The hassle of correcting that was enough to make me quit doing taxes by hand. It takes longer to do my taxes via the web forms than it did by hand (which says just how bad the UI of tax prep is!), but it saves me from human mistakes. Note that the ISR already has all the information they need to do my ta…

> it saves me from human mistakes Not me! FreeFillableForms is apparently the last piece of software in the western world that doesn’t save your progress as you go. I found that out the hard way about three days ago and immediately switched to freetaxusa.

I use freetaxusa as well (well their paid version from same company). It is slower than paper, but it saves progress.

Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states

#240

Post by [deleted] »

dpifke wrote: post #234
junar wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Reasonable cause" is a pretty hard bar to meet. [1] > The following factors don't generally qualify as valid reasons for failure to file or pay a tax on time: > Lack of knowledge. You're responsible for knowing or getting advice on how to file returns and pay or deposit taxes on time. This includes filing requirements, deadlines and amounts you owe. > Mistakes and oversights. You're responsible for making sure your…

That's for failure to file or pay on time. The bar for a mistake (assuming you filed and paid on time) is much lower, see the next section, "Accuracy-Related Penalties," on the first link you posted: https://www.irs.gov/payments/penalty-relief-for-reasonable-c...

[deleted]
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