Claiming high user satisfaction, IRS will decide on renewing free tax site

Post by derangedHorse » Sun, Apr 28, 2024, 3:10 AM UTC

II2II wrote: post #162

thegrim33 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it was originally done this way because in the past people actually had some semblance of privacy and the government didn't actually know a great deal about people's income. Eventually, privacy was eroded away year after year to the point where the government now knows an extreme amount about each citizen. I guess I'd refrain the question - instead of asking why do we need to do taxes when the government know…

> instead of asking why do we need to do taxes when the government knows everything about us that they could do it for us They cannot do everyone's taxes since what they know about many individuals is incomplete. > should we really have that little privacy? Put that way, the answer is no. On the other hand, virtually everyone demands services from their government and very few people want those services to be transac…

Post by bobthepanda » Sun, Apr 28, 2024, 3:52 AM UTC

dh2022 wrote: post #216

alistairSH wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of which apply to the vast majority of filers. Nobody is saying filing taxes should never be necessary. Only that it shouldn’t be necessary for most people. The flow should be… Employer and financial institutions send info to IRS (they mostly do already). Then, in January, IRS sends a “Is this correct?” notice to residents. If correct, no action is needed. If not correct, then make adjustments.

How would the residents verify the amount on the notice is correct? It sounds like the residents would have to do their taxes to verify the amount on the notice....

Post by throwaway5959 » Sun, Apr 28, 2024, 4:19 AM UTC

LoganDark wrote: post #50

worik wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s amazing that 54% of adults in the United States have a literacy below 6th grade level, but... Stop there! Really? "6th grade" is age eleven? That is mind blowing!

I wonder if they went through school and just didn't retain it, or if they were simply not educated at all.

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Apr 28, 2024, 4:32 AM UTC

static_motion wrote: post #143

nkrisc wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s amazing how much of an idiot I felt like when we hired a babysitter for two days a week for about a year and then it came time to do things properly regarding taxes and her wages. I understand why it’s important to do it properly (for the employee’s benefit) but when I tried to look into what we had to do, as technically her employer, and it was nearly impossible for me to figure out what we had to do and then h…

Non-US citizen here: you have to declare what you paid the nanny to the IRS? Where I'm from, only the receiving end of the money needs to declare how much they earned. The only reason we file expenses is for tax deductions. The US tax system has always seemed so hostilely complex to me.

Post by smnrchrds » Sun, Apr 28, 2024, 4:36 AM UTC

kernal wrote: post #7

nneonneo wrote: post #2

I did my Canadian taxes for me and my spouse on a free filing site last night, in less than two hours, for $0. Everything was prefilled; practically the only thing I had to fix was to convert an imported investment statement from USD to CAD, and double check that everything was accurate. I welcome the Americans to the delightful convenience of hassle-free taxes!

So this free site was not run by the government of Canada. Are you concerned that you just gave all of your personal and financial data to a third party site? If you’re not paying anything they’re likely data mining your data and selling it. And we haven’t even talked about the security implications of trusting your data to these companies.