I always thought it was weird that something so complex, easy to mess up, and important to the government would require a third party external dependency. For a while towards the end it really kinda became a shining example of late stage capitalism. You, for all intents and purposes, NEEDED to do business with one of these handful of entities or you are in violation of the law. If you can't afford that you'll have to do this literally impossible stack of paperwork instead.
Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
61–70 of 350 posts
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#62Earlier 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…
Lobbying by the tax prep companies is a big part of how it got so byzantine in the first place.
Can you elaborate on that, perhaps with some substantive example?
I believe that these companies lobby to keep IRS from providing free tax prep, but I do not think that they lobby to make the tax code more complicated.
It’s my understanding that the tax code is complicated as a result of disparate efforts to increase support among voting blocks, to encourage/discourage behaviors, and to reward supporters/backers.
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#63If 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…
>If anything, this will compel the tax preparation software companies to get even better than before...
This implies that the state of tax preparation software is "good", which really doesn't line up with overall consumer sentiment. Personally, I hardly consider clunky UI/UXs loaded with dark patterns to be anything but good.
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#64If 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…
FreeTaxUSA is the one I use and recommend to everyone else.
Though, I also do my taxes on TurboTax to double check my work (I don't submit until both programs report the same amounts to the penny). I just don't submit using TurboTax.
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#65Before 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…
See, this is the thing that gets me. For almost anyone who fits in this box, you shouldn't have to file in the first place. Not "shouldn't have to pay", but literally, "should not have to send documents to the government telling them how much you owe them" - because they already have all of that information. They should just give you an itemized breakdown and ask if it's correct.
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#66If an entire industry can be killed by a public service, it probably didn't deserve to exist in the first place.
Businesses will still need tax assistance. But there is no reason for a person whose income comes only from a salary, interest on savings and a brokerage account to need paid help to file taxes. The IRS already has all of the numbers. They could pre-fill the forms with those numbers and just have the taxpayer approve them.
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#67[deleted]
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
>If the companies producing tax filing software were solving a problem for their users then why shouldn't they exist Because the "problem" they're solving has been solved in other countries without a profitable middleman. Intuit's continued existence in this space is dependent on their lobbying team.
That's a slightly different issue though. Just saying that because the government has offered a solution to the problem of filing taxes doesn't automatically imply that no other organizations that are solving the same problem deserve to exist. I suppose if you are arguing that the one and only reason that tax preparation software is needed is because of Intuit's lobbying then that could be true, but Intuit's lobbying…
Yes, the one and only reason tax preparation software is needed for normal people with normal incomes and expenses in 2023 is because of Intuit's lobbying. That's why people are upset about it.
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it should be expected certain private sector components might be eventually deprecated when government steps in to provide as a public good I support many public goods, including this one, but they are a tool with appropriate uses just like private enterprise is. I don't want operating systems to be a government-provided 'public good'. Also, I think freedom is the core, but not only, value here, including in commer…
> I don't want operating systems to be a government-provided 'public good'. Huh. Interesting example. I actually do want to see a government produced public good operating system. Where we're going, operating systems will either be ad filled messes or locked down walled gardens. A public good option would be required to meet high bars for interoperability while also not ad funded. It's one thing to regulate away a ma…
> Where we're going, operating systems will either be ad filled messes or locked down walled gardens.
Linux?
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#70This is only tangentially-related, but I know I'm asking the right audience: I switched, blissfully, away from Quicken/Quickbook/Xero/all that heavy crap to very simple and elegant textfile-based accounting (ledger/hledger) and it's been the best and most flexible accounting experience I've ever had. I finally feel completely in control of my companies' books. Is there an equivalently-blissful tax-filing software/ser…
If you're looking for the same level of manual control because you don't want the "wizard" interface, you should use "Free File Fillable Forms" [1], which is the product of a public-private partnership with the IRS.
It's literally just filling out the paper forms except in a web interface and it does most of the math for you. And then you can file electronically for free regardless of your income level, and it produces a final PDF with all forms filled out for your files.
It can be tricky to do your taxes the first time around depending on their complexity, but the good thing is that once you figure it out, you just use the previous year's PDF's as a reference for the current year's. The lines move around a little bit year-to-year but it's usually the same idea. And it becomes pretty obvious what has changed (that requires research), and you can figure out if anything has changed in your own financial situation that warrants filling out a new line or new set of forms.
(I don't believe there's anything specifically textfile-based. But this is definitely the electronic version of doing your taxes "manually" with full control.)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_File#Free_File_Fillable_F...