Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing

Post by u801e » Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 11:14 AM UTC

mac01021 wrote: post #687

u801e wrote: post #686

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The W4 form should be sufficient (since it's used to determine the credit, if any, you receive per paycheck). You shouldn't need to file a 1040. Your employer would file the W-2 form which would allow the government to determine your income for the purposes of the amount of credit you receive per paycheck.

So any income other than as a W-2 employee doesn't count influence your credit? This includes capital gains, rent collected from tenants, AdSense revenue. The right way to handle this stuff is not immediately obvious to me.

Post by astura » Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 12:16 PM UTC

tathougies wrote: post #638

astura wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1040-EZ went away in 2018, 1040 is now the only form. :(

The new 1040 form is shorter and easier than the old 1040 ez though

Post by acct1771 » Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 12:57 PM UTC

IntelMiner wrote: post #694

randallsquared wrote: post #680

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where government is concerned, you’re completely correct. However, voting with your dollars does work well for markets, e.g. grocery stores and the like.

Virtually all markets lead to an equilibrium of very few businesses that try their hardest not to compete where possible "Voting with your dollars" is a fools argument designed to impart the feeling that the reader somehow has sway over a monopoly

Post by basseq » Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 1:03 PM UTC

eridius wrote: post #677

basseq wrote: post #675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that you know whether you have all your required information. The IRS doesn’t know until it has everything . Example: your only bank sends your 1099-DIV on February 15, so you file your return. You know that no other bank is going to send you a 1099-DIV because you don’t have any other bank accounts. The IRS doesn’t know this. The IRS only knows that you didn’t get any other 1099-DIVs after they’ve…

The IRS could develop a system where they list what information they've received already, and you can then validate that this represents the complete set of expected information and request that they go ahead and process taxes now without waiting. If they then receive more information later that would affect your taxes, they can bill you, or otherwise just go through the same process they would if you filed your taxe…

Post by sametmax » Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 1:39 PM UTC

mcv wrote: post #619

sametmax wrote: post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which many countries do already. In France, before this year, if you were an employee, you rarely filled a tax form, you just validated a prefilled one, usually with one click on the internet. Now it's just taken every month from your salary, and you get a chance to correct it once a year.

Many countries do this, because in those countries, the government actually represents the interests of people. If there was ever a clear case of the US government putting the needs of businesses before the needs of the people, it's this: keep taxes as complex as possible in order to create business opportunities to sell products to make it easier again. It's a complete bullshit business that shouldn't be necessary a…