The Internal Revenue Service is moving ahead with a plan to build its own free tax filing program, known as Direct File, announcing Tuesday that a pilot version will be available to some taxpayers in 13 states next year.
Armed with an influx of new money approved by Democrats last year, the IRS is conducting a major overhaul of its operations – despite continued threats from Republicans to cut future funding and even abolish the agency altogether.
Eventually, the IRS tax filing system could serve as an alternative to private tax preparation companies like H&R Block and Intuit’s TurboTax.
This is great, but republicans are gonna hate it. They want everyone to hate taxes with a passion, so they make it difficult, time consuming and expensive to pay your taxes, and make government services as bad as possible so even poorer people who don’t pay much tax feel they get a bad deal out of taxation.
If ordinary people found it easy and convenient to pay taxes they might notice that they get more out of government than they put in and that rich people are bearing more of the cost than they are. If they thought that, they might support tax increases or things that horrify republicans like medicaid for all.
Free software like TaxHawk and FreetaxUSA popped up once TurboTax and HR Block started charging people. I get your point, but it doesn’t carry as much weight with the fre, easy software that’s out there.
That second paragraph doesn’t make sense to me. You are saying that “ordinary people” will notice that they benefit from the cost/return ratio compared to “rich people”, so they’ll get greedier?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for medicaid for all… but I don’t follow that logic at all
They’ll notice that they benefit from taxation so they’ll be happier with a higher tax economy and see that tax cuts hurt them more than help them.
A few decades late, right on schedule
Plenty of people were happy to get sick and die, rather than accept Obamacare. I can imagine the same idiots thinking that they’ll get a better refund if they pay for Turbotax.
just look at the vaccinations for another example
No they will done some random person on the street or Facebook. This year’s tax scheme is the fuel tax credit. People seem to believe a $20k refund with $5k income is normal.
Could you expand on what you mean?
The fuel tax credit is generally used by farmer for the purchase of fuel for no highway vehicles like farm equipment and kerosene for heating. For some reason people are reporting the gas they put in their car for this credit. Their returns have a credit for as much as $20k. Their returns generally are low income. People are being told about this credit through means like Facebook.
For tax year 2020 and 2021 there was a credit for self employed people who lost money due to the pandemic could claim a credit of up to16k. People would claim this but have no history of self employment.
These returns are prepared either by individuals or by someone who applied for a preparer id to open a little tax clinic. You also have people who hang out around the tax places telling people they can get them a larger refund and the people don’t question where these numbers are coming from. Part of it is due to poor education on the taxpayers part and shady preparers trying to increase their commissions.
The IRS implementing their own software could reduce this impact. The issue is the IRS is not great at advertising.
Very interesting. This also means some of these people msy owe taxes with interest right?
Interest and penalties are assessed from the original due date of the return(usually 4/15). So yeah there will be interest. Most have been stopped but some slipped through so if you got an oversized refund you may want to make sure as they are planning to audit each instance of these credits. (Fuck them, but, Don’t cheat the government)
Great news for tax filers in the U.S., and I hope this could be a step in the right direction! It’s about time the IRS introduced a free tax filing program. Overhauling their operations and offering an alternative to private tax preparation companies is a welcome move, but I agree with IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel that it should remain a choice for taxpayers.
It’s interesting to see that some states like Arizona, California, Massachusetts, and New York are opting to integrate their state taxes with the federal Direct File system. This could streamline the tax filing process for many. And for those in states without a state income tax, it’s good to know they might also have the chance to participate in this pilot program.
The IRS’s efforts to improve taxpayer services and digitize paper-filed tax returns sound promising. Reduced processing times and faster refunds are definitely something we can all get behind.
Let’s hope this initiative proves to be successful, and it’s essential that eligibility is determined carefully to ensure the right taxpayers benefit from this program. 📄💰🖥️
Who will be eligible for the pilot program
Some taxpayers in Arizona, California, Massachusetts and New York will be eligible for the pilot program during the 2024 tax season that will launch in January. The states have opted to integrate their state taxes with the federal Direct File system.
The Direct File pilot will cover only individual federal tax returns. But once a federal return is filed, taxpayers will be guided to a state-supported tool that they can use to file their state tax return.
Taxpayers in nine other states that do not levy a state income tax – Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming – may also be eligible to participate in the pilot.
Man if they get this right it could be huge
Turbo Tax is gonna be pissed. Good, fuck them.
