Why do Americans have to pay much to file their tax returns when the IRS knows?
1–10 of 23 posts
Re: Why do Americans have to pay much to file their tax returns when the IRS knows?
#2Answered in the subtitle of the article: "Filing taxes could be free and easy, but tax-prep companies and antitax politicians have fought to make it expensive, complicated and annoying."
Re: Why do Americans have to pay much to file their tax returns when the IRS knows?
#3Given the existence of totally free federal and state e-filing options, the situation is analogous to bemoaning sales of Coke when generic soda exists, and hoping that government soda will put Coke out of business. Now that consumers are not inhibited, what remains is a marketing problem.
Re: Why do Americans have to pay much to file their tax returns when the IRS knows?
#4The better question is, why do we pay such extreme taxes in the first place? A lot of state/local budgets seems to be well kept, but the federal budget is essentially cash incineration.
Re: Why do Americans have to pay much to file their tax returns when the IRS knows?
#5Given the existence of totally free federal and state e-filing options, the situation is analogous to bemoaning sales of Coke when generic soda exists, and hoping that government soda will put Coke out of business. Now that consumers are not inhibited, what remains is a marketing problem.
As someone with not a lot of income who would prefer to maximize their return where are theses free e-filing options?
Re: Why do Americans have to pay much to file their tax returns when the IRS knows?
#6The better question is, why do we pay such extreme taxes in the first place? A lot of state/local budgets seems to be well kept, but the federal budget is essentially cash incineration.
Americans pay quite low taxes relative to other countries.
There's clearly plenty of waste and poor spending in the federal budget, though there's wide-ranging disagreement on which parts are the wasteful ones.
Re: Why do Americans have to pay much to file their tax returns when the IRS knows?
#7Given the existence of totally free federal and state e-filing options, the situation is analogous to bemoaning sales of Coke when generic soda exists, and hoping that government soda will put Coke out of business. Now that consumers are not inhibited, what remains is a marketing problem.
As someone with not a lot of income who would prefer to maximize their return where are theses free e-filing options?
I would start with Cash App Tax, formerly CreditKarma free tax software. Depending on your income you might also be able to use MyFreeTaxes, a United Way initiative.
Re: Why do Americans have to pay much to file their tax returns when the IRS knows?
#8Given the existence of totally free federal and state e-filing options, the situation is analogous to bemoaning sales of Coke when generic soda exists, and hoping that government soda will put Coke out of business. Now that consumers are not inhibited, what remains is a marketing problem.
As someone with not a lot of income who would prefer to maximize their return where are theses free e-filing options?
Re: Why do Americans have to pay much to file their tax returns when the IRS knows?
#9My wife and I file pretty standard forms every year--no complicated deductions, only 2-3 W2s, maybe a couple 1099s and a 1098-E. For the first few years of our marriage, I did taxes by hand as a point of pride and enjoyed it (yeah, I know--most say yuck). Around 2006ish, I got a copy of TurboTax in a bundle with my first MacBook Pro and I've never looked back. It's absolutely worth it to me for $40 to me for the ease of e-filing, standardized output with all worksheets and forms, and speed of return via direct deposit. I get $40 is a lot to some people and tbh, I fully support a sliding percentage tax system with NO returns, but the vast majority of people get a return anyway, why not count the $40 out of it to be sure your returns were done right?
Oh, and yea, I still quite enjoy tax-night when I get to sit down with my reciepts and 109x's and file, though I will say I always mail my state returns in to avoid the additional $20 fee for e-file.
Re: Why do Americans have to pay much to file their tax returns when the IRS knows?
#10My wife and I file pretty standard forms every year--no complicated deductions, only 2-3 W2s, maybe a couple 1099s and a 1098-E. For the first few years of our marriage, I did taxes by hand as a point of pride and enjoyed it (yeah, I know--most say yuck). Around 2006ish, I got a copy of TurboTax in a bundle with my first MacBook Pro and I've never looked back. It's absolutely worth it to me for $40 to me for the ease…
Except you're paying $40 to a company that prevents you from having what every other modern western country has: $0, and the government did it for you.
They stole your $40 every year and used it to lobby Congress.