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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

#301

Post by bb123 »

gwbas1c wrote: post #282
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…

> 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. Because the IRS isn't allowed to tell you what you owe. You're supposed to calculate that yourself... (And it's so damn complicated that it's worth paying someone to do it, unless you were the kid who did the math textbook for fun.) Eventually, the IRS calculates what th…

>Because the IRS isn't allowed to tell you what you owe.

>Eventually, the IRS calculates what they think you owe, and if you underpaid, they send you a bill

It definitely feels like a few steps could be skipped here…

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

#302

Post by personomas »

roshin wrote: post #291
etskinner wrote: post #7

Before everyone gets too excited: This will probably only apply to simple tax situations: If you have more than these, you might not be able use it: #Income reporting W-2 wage income Social Security and railroad retirement income Unemployment compensation Interest of $1,500 or less #Credits Earned Income Tax Credit Child Tax Credit Credit for Other Dependents #Deductions Standard deduction Student loan interest Educa…

As an expat, I assume that there will be no soon changes to the complicated tax filing that I have to do. Although I am exempt from paying taxes to Uncle Sam, the "tax" that I have to pay to an accountant to fill out the complicated forms is more than enough to make me want to get rid of my citizenship, if that in itself wasn't so expensive.

Just do it yourself man, it's not that hard. Use your past ones as an example. I've been doing mine for 7 years (I live in Germany)

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

#303

Post by over_bridge »

pipodeclown wrote: post #300
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…

I find it bizarre that this is even a market in the US. I would think enabling people to do their taxes is a basic task of the government. Where I'm from the government provides a very simple click through filing system. Most information is auto filled from info the government already has or is manditorily shared with it such as my income as reported by my employer and any tax withholdings performed by them, securiti…

Yeah it's wild that you have to calculate your own bill to the government. Just tell me the amount and I'll pay it.

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

#304

Post by koblas »

personomas wrote: post #302
roshin wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an expat, I assume that there will be no soon changes to the complicated tax filing that I have to do. Although I am exempt from paying taxes to Uncle Sam, the "tax" that I have to pay to an accountant to fill out the complicated forms is more than enough to make me want to get rid of my citizenship, if that in itself wasn't so expensive.

Just do it yourself man, it's not that hard. Use your past ones as an example. I've been doing mine for 7 years (I live in Germany)

Are you filling forms yourself or using a service? I'm doing the expat thing and it's still like 90 pages for the final filing.

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

#306

Post by amake »

heavyset_go wrote: post #289
willdr wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!"

*Conspiracy hat on* Paying income ta is made into an arduous task so people are likely to vote against taxes or for repeal of taxes instead of being accepted as a fact of life.

No need for the hat. As I understand, that is an explicit goal of influential political operatives like Grover Norquist and the Americans for Tax Reform (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_for_Tax_Reform)

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

#307

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

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…

> 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.

You don't; you can download the forms and fill them out yourself. It's annoying but doable.

That said, it really should be better; your description sounds like a good outcome.

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

#308

Post by Freedom2 »

gwbas1c wrote: post #282
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…

> 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. Because the IRS isn't allowed to tell you what you owe. You're supposed to calculate that yourself... (And it's so damn complicated that it's worth paying someone to do it, unless you were the kid who did the math textbook for fun.) Eventually, the IRS calculates what th…

> (And it's so damn complicated that it's worth paying someone to do it, unless you were the kid who did the math textbook for fun.)

The vast majority of taxes that are filed by US taxpayers are simple. Unless you're extrapolating your own experience to everyone else, that is.

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

#310

Post by maccard »

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…

> Most UK employees don't do self assessment. PAYE is such a simple and obvious idea - routine taxation should be done by routine.

Just to double down on this, what gerdesj is describing only affects a very small portion of workers. For those who _don't_ do the steps above the process is:

- It's automatically taken out of your pay, and you don't do anything.

That's it.

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