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IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

nytimes.com

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Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#311

Post by selimthegrim »

rayiner wrote: post #300
int_19h wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, no. GOP today has very little semblance to GOP of Reagan times (although the seeds of the present insanity have been sown then, and even earlier - Trumpism is a perfectly logical end result of Birchers, "moral majority" etc). And there's nothing "golden age" about Florida today; certainly not when it comes to quality of governance.

In terms of tone, it’s quite different, but in terms of governance Trump’s term was a pretty standard GOP term with the exception of immigration and foreign policy—which aren’t issues at the state level. Tax cuts, bootstraps, etc. Calling Trumpism an extension of Bircherism is a coping mechanism, seeing as how the GOP is winning record shares of minorities under Trump. Instead, the Trump GOP is a hybrid of the Reagan…

>great schools

So, letting any veteran be a high school teacher without any further qualification makes it great schools? The governor purging state universities makes it great schools?

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#312

Post by Izkata »

bschwindHN wrote: post #221
practicemaths wrote: post #44

I just file my taxes by hand and mail it in. Somewhat less concern with 3rd parties holding my information and losing it to leaks/hacks. It is free. A little obnoxious but the forms do have instructions/directions.

I do them on paper as well. It doesn't take me too long and I hope it adds to their pain of processing it so they get along with implementing free (and good) digital solutions faster.

I use free fillable forms, an online version of the paper forms. They're pretty much exactly the same, just the online one does some basic math and copying values between steps for you.

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#313

Post by Izkata »

fsmv wrote: post #78
practicemaths wrote: post #44

I just file my taxes by hand and mail it in. Somewhat less concern with 3rd parties holding my information and losing it to leaks/hacks. It is free. A little obnoxious but the forms do have instructions/directions.

I heard that this sometimes takes them much longer to process the returns that way. Has that been your experience? One time I reproduced the forms in a spreadsheet following the instructions and it wasn't much different from doing the online wizards. I would have liked to mail it in but I just paid to e-file anyway.

I switched from paper to https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-form... in 2021, which doesn't cost anything, and the online version has consistently been processed a month or two faster than the paper version.

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#314

Post by Buttons840 »

BurningFrog wrote: post #252
Buttons840 wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The more general argument is that monopolies are inefficient, and most instances of government programs are monopolies. Even more general, markets where it is hard for new competitors to enter are inefficient. It's perfectly possible for a market with 10 or 20 competitors to stop competing for mutual benefit. I'd even argue a monopoly (a single dominant company) is fine, so long as it's easy for competitors to ente…

> It's perfectly possible for a market with 10 or 20 competitors to stop competing for mutual benefit. As I remember it, the empirical research says two competitors can keep a stable monopoly cartel going for a long time. three can maybe do it for a while. With larger numbers things get very unstable.

Source? I would enjoy reading more about this. I wonder if this was a simulation or an observational study of real markets?

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#315

Post by worik »

bubbleRefuge wrote: post #183
worik wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Federal income taxes are unfair and unnecessary. Since it had been demonstrated (via MMT) that taxes do not fund the Federal government, That is incorrect MMT does not propose that the state can fund itself without tax, except for some seriously deluded proponents who have lost their grip on reality The use of resources by the state requires those resources are unavailable to other actors Money is a slippery and an…

2 of the founders have said we don't need income taxes

Argument by oracle

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#316

Post by chrismcb »

remarkEon wrote: post #226
iambateman wrote: post #223

Just one thing to add… The “IRS will functionally increase taxes” argument is a distraction and I doubt anyone here takes it seriously. But the argument matters because it has given Congress political cover to let Intuit keep leeching off the system, so a response is in order. Congress should require the IRS to give every person an auditable receipt of every tax they paid in a standard format. Then, truly public-mind…

I don't think it's really a distraction. It seems illogical for the government to not have a free, easy way for the taxpayer to remit their taxes to the government (or submit the paperwork that should generate a return from that government). But at the same time I think it's fine to be skeptical that you should trust the government to be honest in showing you what amount of taxes you actually owe given how complicate…

You've always been able to file your taxes freely. My biggest problem is the IRS already knows what I owe, with the exception of a few small things. So why do I have to go through the process of telling them what I think I owe.

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#317

Post by beej71 »

saxonww wrote: post #163
practicemaths wrote: post #44

I just file my taxes by hand and mail it in. Somewhat less concern with 3rd parties holding my information and losing it to leaks/hacks. It is free. A little obnoxious but the forms do have instructions/directions.

Not sure it covers the 3rd party concerns, but freefilefillableforms has been around for a decade or longer. It's fillable PDFs of the IRS forms with all the instructions available, and basic calculation abilities. No restrictions on income, etc. but federal returns only. You get an email from them within 24 hours of whether your return was accepted or not. It's still obnoxious but for easy returns it seems better th…

Some states do free fillable forms, as well.

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#318

Post by whakim »

atombender wrote: post #301
whakim wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This claim is not correct in several ways. The $80B was not earmarked for hiring agents; that was an additional $80B for the entire agency spread over 10 years. While some of that money might be used to hire additional agents, it will also be used to upgrade old technology (the IRS still uses software from the 1950s), make fixed capital investments that have been long-deferred, regulate third-party tax preparers, pro…

A large part of the Individual Master File processing engine is also written in mainframe assembly language. But the broader issue seems to be that the IRS is really bad at planning, goal-setting, and managing its development lifecycle [1]. They've burned through $5.9B just on modernization projects since 1998, with very little to show for it. Many of those projects, including replacing IMF and CADE (which was suppos…

I don't think this issue is specific to the IRS; it has much more to do with how the government is funded - via a series of Continuing Resolutions which make it really difficult to achieve any sort of long-term planning or projects. In the case of BSM funding, your source cites fluctuations are truly wild and were likely enacted on very short timeframes (i.e. months or weeks), which makes it incredibly difficult to hire and retain the expertise or make capital investments you need for success. The debacle around the IRS funding in the Inflation Reduction Act (the subject of the now-deleted parent comment I replied to) highlights these issues - a bunch of funding was allocated, some of it was later clawed back through a budget deal between the White House and Congressional Republicans, and a likely deal this January may continue to reallocate funding. I don't want to lay all the blame for all the IRS' ills at the feet of the state of government funding, but I certainly think it makes it really, really hard to get significant multiyear projects completed.

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#319

Post by mdhb »

phpisthebest wrote: post #289
mrmanner wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Paying taxes in the US is complicated because everyone wants their taxes Everyone wants their taxes and refuses to cooperate. Most countries have some kind of local or regional taxes, and the single tax authority is responsible for collecting and distributing them all. I get that the federal level in the US is a bit special (EU for example doesn’t tax citizens directly, instead the member states pay fees from their…

>>I get that the federal level in the US is a bit special (EU for example doesn’t tax citizens directly, instead the member states pay fees from their tax revenue). the US Federal government was not suppose to tax citizens directly either, thanks to the 16th Amendment that was passed under the lie that it would only ever be a "Tax on the rich" of 3% and only apply to 1% of the people, now the federal government takes…

Maybe you should be more pissed about that 1% who are using every trick in the book to avoid paying taxes.

Also as a side note why you think economic policy from hundreds of years ago is the pinnacle of excellence is a more than a but confusing.

Re: IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system

#320

Post by rayiner »

selimthegrim wrote: post #311
rayiner wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of tone, it’s quite different, but in terms of governance Trump’s term was a pretty standard GOP term with the exception of immigration and foreign policy—which aren’t issues at the state level. Tax cuts, bootstraps, etc. Calling Trumpism an extension of Bircherism is a coping mechanism, seeing as how the GOP is winning record shares of minorities under Trump. Instead, the Trump GOP is a hybrid of the Reagan…

>great schools So, letting any veteran be a high school teacher without any further qualification makes it great schools? The governor purging state universities makes it great schools?

Letting veterans teach while working on their degree, which is what that law does, is a great idea.

And curating the education offered in public universities is a great idea too. Public universities must serve public purposes. CRT serves to undermine the society, not reinforce it.

It’s especially important to get rid of it in a majority-minority state like Florida. CRT education is racism. It teaches minority kids a different worldview and values from white kids—and an inferior one. My mom was born during British colonization, but she was educated as an equal person. She can tell you about Plato and Tolstoy. My kids—thanks to living in a blue state—are learning how to whine about “white men” and see themselves as different, and aggrieved. They will not be equal citizens when they grow up, because they are being socialized to be a lower, dependent class.

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