Intuit seems to be worried. Shortly after this story was published, Rick Heineman, the company’s communications VP, emailed The Verge with an aggressive statement calling the IRS’s pilot “redundant” and “half-baked.”
“The Direct File scheme is a solution in search of a problem,” he wrote, adding that it could end up “costing billions of dollars in taxpayer money.”
“Yeah you morons! Don’t use the free tools that the govt provides you! Pay us to do it!”
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I’m highly surprised Texas is on that list.
It’s becuase Texas doesn’t have state income taxes so there is literally nothing extra they need to do to comply. Same goes for Florida and Tennessee, which commenters also mentioned.
Yeah…these hard right states signing on board is making me wonder if they are doing so just to shit on the program and “have a say” on how it goes.
Ditto for TN
Florida is a surprise too.
2024 filing season means this coming year to file 2023 taxes, not when you file your 2024 taxes in 2025, right?
Next year, 2024 Tax Filing Season (2023 Taxes)
Direct File is one more potential option from which qualifying taxpayers will be able to choose to file a 2023 federal tax return during the 2024 filing season.
Yes, 2023 taxes being filed in the “2024 filing season” as the IRS calls it.
Holy shit, some nice news from NH. Seems like it’s been a while since we were in the news for anything other than an embarrassment or the election.
Very good news. Tired of giving money to the tax prep vampires. But initial roll out is for simple tax situations (W-2 and deducting student loan interest).
Why can’t this program also apply to selling of stocks/options as well? This information is already furnished to the IRS
In some European countries, paying income tax means that the government sends you a form that is already completely filled out except for your deductions, and you simply verify that it looks good, then you add in whatever deductions you have, and file it.
Because 99% of the work in filing our taxes in America is completely worthless. The government already receives information directly from the same companies who send you all those tax forms. The IRS already knows all the information. Making you input it again is just a way to ensure the maximum number of mistakes.
So the IRS is taking a good first step, but we still have a long way to go to catch up to what people in other countries already have. Instead of making me fill out the forms, and the IRS checks for errors, have the IRS automatically fill out the forms, and I’ll check for errors. In a civilized country, this is something that we should already have.
It’s because the tax filing software companies lobby lawmakers to prevent exactly what you described. They want to keep the tax code complicated, so people feel the need to continue buying tax software every year. Seriously, tax software lobbies are some of the largest lobby groups in the country.
And the other half of that is that Republicans want to make paying taxes as difficult as possible so people will support tax cuts
There was a massive bipartisan (well POTUS and Dems in Congress) push for this in the second half of the Bush Administration. It lost GOP support after the Republican House Caucus turned on Bush for his path to citizenship immigration reform policy. Intuit and its peers have so much money in this and in lobbying.
Nice! I just moved out of NY State (NYC) and down to Florida, free filing and no state income tax for me!
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That was one of my friend’s selling points about moving here lol I’d get raped with taxes in NYC. I would make $110k/year but I’d be lucky if I saw $85k.
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Complete pipe dream. The government is gonna take their share whether you like it or not, the only thing this changes is that big tac corporations won’t take theirs, too
Meanwhile the IRS should do what other countries do and just use the data they already have and send you a tax bill. What we currently have for like 99% of the tax paying public is a system where you get to guess if you filled out the forms correctly and then the irs, using the data it already has for you, corrects your mistakes and sometimes penalizes you for getting it wrong. All this while allowing Intuit and others to extract even more rent from people.
How you gonna pay for roads?
The income tax has dick all to do with roads
You never heard of Federal Highways?
Firstly, three-quarters of highway infrastructure is funded by state investment. Even still, 82% of the entire HTF funding comes from taxes on motor fuel, not income tax.
Second, what you said doesn’t even refute my original comment. Highways and interstates aren’t roads.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway
First line defines it as a type of road.
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Income tax is just a fine charged on the company for having employees. It’s not taken from you, it’s taken from them.
Yes because companies never pass on revenue loss to their employees
That’s not true. Income is taxed against the individual. Employers are required to withhold income taxes in many cases, but it’s not “a fine charged on the company.” It is a tax on the individual’s income, withheld from the individual.
But the end result is the same. You don’t “make 50k, and lose 15k to taxes”, you just make 35k. That’s is. That’s what you make. If you want more, talk to your employer.
But the end result is the same. You don’t “make 50k, and lose 15k to taxes”, you just make 35k. That’s is. That’s what you make. If you want more, talk to your employer.
No, that’s exactly what happens. Have you ever filed a tax return? We’re not debating subjective interpretation here. You make a gross income that is then taxed by the government. The income tax that the government takes is taken from your gross income.
Your employer is taxed on your income by “Payroll tax”, which is a tax against the employer and is not income tax:
Payroll taxes include amounts paid by both the employee and the employer to cover any federal taxes due, while income taxes specifically refer to the amount owed by the employee to cover their individual federal income taxes owed.
Source. I’m not trying to be pedantic – in your original post, you said “Income tax is just a fine charged on the company for having employees” which is objectively not true. Income tax != payroll tax.
Yes, you’re 100% factually correct. However, it’s not useful to complain about an income tax because society benefits from those services. Fundamentally, if you’re unhappy with your take home, you need to complain about your salary. And to accept that, you need to make the mental switch to believing that your pre-tax income is not actually your income.
