IRS will pilot free, direct tax filing in 2024::Direct File is a shot across the bows of Turbotax, H&R Block, and others who have resisted free and simple tax filing for decades.
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The rest of the developed world has had this for decades.
So I fully expect this initiative to be lobbied out of existence by Intuit and the rest of the tax filing industry.
Update: An Intuit spokesperson contacted TechCrunch to call Direct File “wholly redundant,” and potentially a “financial nightmare” that will cost billions. But we won’t know until we try.
that will cost billions.
Cost whom billions?
Intuit’s bottom line.
To the taxpayer, ofc. As opposed to the status quo, that costs billions to the taxpayer.
Yeah, even my third world country does this. But this only works if you only have a 9 to 5 job. Some people have more complicated tax.
This guy explains it a bit more:
Luckily, most people are 9 to 5ers. The vast majority of people have simple taxes that a trained monkey could handle if it weren’t for the Intuit cabal.
Let not perfect be the enemy of good. This is a good step and from here, we can improve the system by steps until the only people who can’t use it are tax cheats. Over optimistic? Yes, but I’m taking my wins to go.
Why can’t they pre fill in the form and ask us if it’s correct. The cast majority of us have pretty straight forward filling is.
Because Intuit and H&R Block have given more money to have it stay the same than anybody has for simplifying it.
Gotta love a bribery based legislature system.
a subset of lucky taxpayers in as many as 13 states
This makes it sound like some dystopian survival lottery.
Four states signed up for the test, the rest “may be eligible” due to not having state income tax.
.” In software terms, we’d probably call this an alpha.
No, we’d call this a closed beta test.
Where I work, we’d just call it an established product…
Prototype performs one function on the happy path and crashes regularly on the edge cases?
Ship it!
I’ve been using IRS Free File Fillable Forms for a few years now. It’s not super great but it does the job. It also has a dorky name.
IF^4
Yeah. Stupid name even when I try to hype it up.
I²P is real name. IF-four or IF Hypercube? Maybe call it IRS’ Hypercube?
Wait, do US citizens have to pay to file taxes? Or is this a service to help navigate the complexities?
The government charges no fee to file.
However, until this year, lobbying has prevented the IRS from providing online services to help taxpayers fill out the forms or file directly, instead being required to outsource that and only expose a (wildly insecure btw) API for electronic filing.
Because the US tax code is also complicated as fuck and changes all the time, services like TurboTax exist and charge you to fill out the forms.
Repeat the above for each state you work / have income / own property in.
US citizen here. Used to file my own for free. At one point I bought a house and qualified for some tax credit so I paid an accountant to do my taxes that year to ensure I got everything right, bascially never went back becuase it was worth the $175 to litterally do nothing except mail my tax documents to an accountant.
LET’S FUCKING GOOOO
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Wait, there was no direct tax filing?
Nah, it’s OK. Every person in the world knows what’s IRS, no need to explain the acronym.
