Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
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Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#2If an entire industry can be killed by a public service, it probably didn't deserve to exist in the first place.
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#3If an entire industry can be killed by a public service, it probably didn't deserve to exist in the first place.
Just as in tech we build things that will get refactored and thrown away, it should be expected certain private sector components might be eventually deprecated when government steps in to provide as a public good.
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#4[deleted]
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#5will it have embedded links to google.com like https://dmv.ca.gov ?
(for example, this irs page links to googletagmanager)
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#6I hope this is good! I've been happily using FreeTaxUSA for the last several years, which has a small price for state tax submissions and no gotchas after H&R block jumped me with over a hundred dollars in fees at the end.
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#7Before 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
Educator expenses
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#8If an entire industry can be killed by a public service, it probably didn't deserve to exist in the first place.
That seems like an overly broad statement. If the companies producing tax filing software were solving a problem for their users then why shouldn't they exist. Even with this new option being offered by the IRS there is still likely room for private companies to solve the same problem (tax filing) in a way which is perceived as better by some users and so still justify their existence.
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#9I've been using FreeTaxUSA for a while now to do my taxes, and I like it very much. (If you use TurboTax or H&R Block or something, I strongly recommend giving FreeTaxUSA a look). I was sort of wondering if the IRS would just buy them wholesale and use that as the free file software, since it's already "finished" and making another one would be duplicated effort. But is there precedent for that, the government just buying a private company for its IP?
Re: Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states
#10Before 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…
It'll only apply to simple tax situations for this initial pilot launch.