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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

#251

Post by xtracto »

mminer237 wrote: post #178
starik36 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, I've always just entered the summary. However, that process is manual and requires scouring the forms for correct info. With TurboTax, it lets you integrate into the brokerage and just sucks down the info.

Your 1099-B should give you all the info right on the first page in a table.

A tangential comment given your mention of whatever 99 B form:

Every time HN discussion about US taxes comes, I imagine a sizeable group of users from developed country watch in amusement the craziness that the IRS makes its taxpayers go through to charge them money.

I know in Mexico and Chile everything is highly automated. In Mexico 50%+ of working class dont have to do ANYTHING, as whatever tax stuff needed is submitted by their employer.

Come on US... that we in Mexico have better automation for this is inconceivable. We look up to you for lots of things, particularly technology.

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

#252

Post by Uvix »

xtracto wrote: post #251
mminer237 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your 1099-B should give you all the info right on the first page in a table.

A tangential comment given your mention of whatever 99 B form: Every time HN discussion about US taxes comes, I imagine a sizeable group of users from developed country watch in amusement the craziness that the IRS makes its taxpayers go through to charge them money. I know in Mexico and Chile everything is highly automated. In Mexico 50%+ of working class dont have to do ANYTHING, as whatever tax stuff needed is sub…

1099-anything, by definition, doesn't come from an employer. They're for other sources of income (brokerage sales, interest, etc.).

The US would need to vastly simply the tax code - remove all the various tax breaks for dependents/spouses, remove the progressive taxation scale, etc. - before it could be successfully automated.

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

#253

Post by MobileVet »

gavinhoward wrote: post #157
dalyons wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gave FTuasa a go after seeing it mentioned here a lot. Unfortunately it seems the investment part is very manual compared to TurboTax. I have a couple of robotrader , brokerage accounts etc. on TurboTax it’s a few clicks and that’s imported, FTusa is tediously transcribing numbers off dozens of forms that I have no idea if I’m doing it right. I reluctantly gave money to TT again.

Relative a of FreeTaxUSA employee here. I'll let her know. She cares about UX.

Also give her a high five and thank her! FreeTaxUSA is fantastic, even with the limitations.

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

#255

Post by davchana »

TylerE wrote: post #95
parhamn wrote: post #51

One thing I really want to see is an official form where if you answer all the questions, to the best of your knowledge correctly, protects you from liability for incorrectly filing your taxes. End of the day with TurboTax and co, you, as expected, get a "not our system, not our problem" type response when dealing with the post-filing ramifications. There seems to generally be a lot of "I'm not sure if I did it right…

It could be so much easier. In most of Europe "filing" your taxes involves getting a short letter essentially saying you made $x, and $y, with short return forms to either agree, or file an appeal.

Every time this comment is posted about non usa geographic area, somebody will post, but in US you have deductions, allowance, dividend, smaller profits, gifts. Which for sure all other countries too have, and somehow they have sorted this out. I think its the lobbying and the general mistrust of government "telling" a number vs calculating the number yourself. (Although if that is a wrong number, government/IRS tells the correct number).

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

#256

Post by mmanfrin »

nashashmi wrote: post #151
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…

Just print out the sheet from your broker of all the trades you did with the end result of gains circled. Send that in. You should be ok from doing anything more complex.

You are doing your taxes wrong and should be careful this ain't audited.

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

#257

Post by mmanfrin »

adventured wrote: post #223
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…

> keep in mind that at the current United States minimum wage ($7.25 as of this writing), it would take upwards of working 6-14 hours just to pay for tax filing Relatively few people in the US earn the Federal minimum wage. It's less than 1/2 of 1% of the labor force. It's a very poor reference for anything in terms of personal finance comparisons. You can walk into a CVS or Walgreens and earn $15 / hr as the minimum…

> It's less than 1/2 of 1% of the labor force.

So it's only millions of people.

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

#258

Post by willdr »

gerdesj wrote: post #229

There are lots of comments along the lines of "xxx is cheap" Why on earth do you need a third party for your tax calc and resolution? It is surely the antithesis of the "land of the free" and all that stuff. In the boring old UK I login to a govt. run website to do my annual tax self assessment. My P60 is already filled in (that's my PAYE - pay as you earn, my normal salary) I'm a company director too so I have divid…

You're expecting coherency in the American libertarian mindset. There is none. "why should the government control the means of tax filing! I need to be free to pay a private company to do it!"

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

#259

Post by mindslight »

dpifke wrote: post #236
mindslight wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Oh I see! I'm not familiar with Beancount syntax so I didn't realize that your example metadata pertained to an account rather than a transaction. Of course looking it at more closely that's obvious now.

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

#260

Post by notyourwork »

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/

First time user last year. Pleased with the UX, would repeat unless IRS gives new an option.
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