51–60 of 350 posts
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" anxiety in the general population.
If an entire industry can be killed by a public service, it probably didn't deserve to exist in the first place.
I disagree. If anything, this will compel the tax preparation software companies to get even better than before, and offer an increased value proposition. Competition benefits the consumer, and for a long while there's been limited, mostly fixed competition (via Brand awareness mostly). FreeTaxUSA is amazing, and cheap, but it does not yet have the brand power the incumbents do. It's unlikely the IRS offering will be…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree. If anything, this will compel the tax preparation software companies to get even better than before, and offer an increased value proposition. Competition benefits the consumer, and for a long while there's been limited, mostly fixed competition (via Brand awareness mostly). FreeTaxUSA is amazing, and cheap, but it does not yet have the brand power the incumbents do. It's unlikely the IRS offering will be…
This whole thing reads like insanity to me lol, I live & work as a contractor in the UK and I'm taxed directly through PAYE on earnings. Beyond that I just file my tax return through the Gov website.
The government isn't aware of your donations or losses, or whatever. So you have to tell them about it. Tax preparation software, historically, was designed to make this process easier by prompting you for all sorts of details you may have forgotten or were un-aware of. In essence, the software was supposed to replace a paid tax professional.
Today, most people use Standard Deduction since it was raised so high by the Trump Administration, and the need for credits and deductions has been greatly diminished. However, the need is still there for many folks, and not all tax filings are simple.
The nirvana for tax filing would be a single page online that disputes any facts the IRS already knows (such as informing them about donations or the like). But, our tax code itself needs to be vastly reformed and simplified before that can become a reality.
If an entire industry can be killed by a public service, it probably didn't deserve to exist in the first place.
All other taxpayers will continue to use systems that ideally maximize deductions as government continues to tax endlessly.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some businesses only exist due to government failure. The solution is to fix the government, not preserve a middleman asking for their cut.
Completely agree that fixing the government is the real solution, but until that is done, why shouldn't private companies be able to produce (optional) tools that make filing easier?
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…
If Trump wins again he's going to have a lot of work destroying all the progress Biden has made in just one term.