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from the you-must-enter-all-numbers-in-hex dept.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, about 70% of all US taxpayers are eligible for free federal income-tax-preparation and electronic-filing software through a program known as Free File. From the article:
Grappling with confusing tax forms and instructions may seem like the textbook definition of cruel and unusual punishment.
But there are a few ways for most taxpayers to make the task less burdensome. For example, about 70% of all taxpayers are eligible for free federal income-tax-preparation and electronic-filing software through a program known as “Free File.”
[...] Free File (IRS.gov/FreeFile) is a partnership between the Internal Revenue Service and a group of 14 tax-software companies, known as the Free File Alliance. The companies are offering products at no charge. But they aren’t available to everyone.
“If you earned $60,000 or less last year, you are eligible to choose from among 14 software products,” the IRS says.
Have you used this program before? What has your experience been? Would you recommend it to your fellow Solylentils?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 25 2015, @04:54PM
more than $60k, so the "free filing alliance" offerings won't help. The federal filing system is mired in corruption, where the established tax filing corps have colluded with the government to prevent saner tax processing.
So every year US taxpayers are required to shuffle random bits of paper, containing data also sent to the IRS, then run through a series of ~20 forms and subforms acting as a human BASIC interpreter bouncing back and forth through them, just to show the government what they already know.
If we didn't have these leeches buy off the federal government, we could have mechanisms like in New York and California, where the tax office sends a pre-figured bill.
(Score: 1) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 25 2015, @05:52PM
I'd say most employed people reading this earn more than $60k
You would be wrong http://www.irs.gov/file_source/pub/irs-soi/12in11si.xls [irs.gov]
Your point is however correct. In fact my point even makes it stand out more. As we overburden the least who are able to afford it. Our tax system is a byzantine labyrinth of kickbacks and social engineering gone bad.
Take the whole thing throw it out and start with 0 deductions. At a minimum they should send us a postcard saying 'is this right' or 'go to the website and check' like you say. If it is wrong then file. I am still waiting on president Obama to make good on his promise to do just that.
The gov is literally leaving money on the table and letting people game the system because they are overburdened. Make the burden simpler seems like a good plan?...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 25 2015, @06:27PM
It should be simpler than that, a flat tax percent for everyone, no deductions, no loopholes, no excuse.
(Score: 2) by Non Sequor on Monday January 26 2015, @04:06AM
Flat tax advocates are naive. The biggest personal income tax deductions are retirement savings, mortgage interest and child credits.
The constituencies that created these deductions will either reinstate them or build new bureaucracies to house them. Subsidizing these activities is an idea that is too popular to kill.
Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.
(Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Monday January 26 2015, @03:36PM
We could make the system easier to do without going to flat tax. Nobody (sane) is saying we should not subsidize these big ticket items.
But the sheer volume of paperwork and forms is maddening even for an individual. I am glad I do not own a small business.
The IRS bureaucracy exists to feed itself, like every bureaucracy. The amount of money we would save by cutting it down to the bare minimum could save a ton of money.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by Non Sequor on Tuesday January 27 2015, @12:03AM
I think I'm just more idealistic and jaded than you. I'm idealistic in that I tend to think that an ugly status quo reflects hard compromises on implicit subjective judgments embedded in the problem. I'm jaded in that I think that efforts to slay monsters tend to spawn larger monsters.
From that perspective, I prefer politics driven by iterative improvements and horse-trading compromises over large sweeping "solutions".
In this specific case, if you cut down one bureaucracy but spawn one or two new ones to tackle some things that were tacked on to the old bureaucracy and still need to be addressed,even if the new bureaucracies are smaller than the old one, are you really sure they're going to stay that way?
From another perspective, framing these subsidies as tax deductions makes them more politically stable and currently there are insane elements looking for new battlegrounds.
Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 25 2015, @08:24PM
Don't think I'm wrong about the income. At least the IRS statistic doesn't disprove it. People who read this site are for the most part in the computer industry, which pays more than what most peons can get elsewhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 26 2015, @07:35AM
Wait 10 years, when you can't get an IT job unless you're a H-B1 worker.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 26 2015, @03:27AM
Read the site again. Below $60K you can do the free file software. Any income level can do the free fillable forms.