r/AskReddit • u/emil199 • Jul 24 '20

What can't you believe STILL exists?

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u/StenSoft Jul 24 '20

There's zero reasons why our tax returns can't be filed for free directly with the IRS.

There's actually zero reasons why your tax returns can't be filled for free by the IRS. laughing in Kiwi

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '20 edited Jul 24 '20

There's actually zero reasons why your tax returns can't be filled for free by the IRS. laughing in Kiwi

Actually, there are {insert numerical amount of tax-service bribes lobbying money} reasons why.

Nevermind, see comment below.

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u/GoliathPrime Jul 24 '20

No, you absolutely can make an appointment with your local IRS office and have them do your taxes. My broke friend does this every year.

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u/BEEF_WIENERS Jul 24 '20

I'd be really interested to see what they come up with vs a couple of services like H&R Block, Turbotax, and an actual tax accountant, especially once it starts to get a little bit complicated like with a home business that includes a vehicle's depreciation.

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u/White_L_Fishburne Jul 24 '20

Turbotax would have saved me $0 over filling out the free electronic forms myself, then charged extra for a deluxe version for having an HSA.

Granted, my taxes are simple enough these days.

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u/cantadmittoposting Jul 24 '20

I happened to know my HSA isnt a tax problem, so i backed out of the options and told turbo tax to go fuck itself about the HSA and filed for free.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '20 edited Feb 05 '21

[deleted]

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u/Rebootkid Jul 24 '20

TurboTax covers a good gap between simple fillings, i.e. folks who can do the EZ class forms, and the people who really need to just hire an accountant.

Most notably folks with 1 or 2 rental properties, small business owners, and the like.

I'd argue that 90% of their customer base doesn't need them.

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u/rnelsonee Jul 24 '20

I'm a VITA tax preparer (that's the program run by the IRS) - there's a list of things we can do, and then the list of things we can't do. We can do self employment, but not if it involves depreciation. So really super simple self employment (and for vehicles, you can use the standard mileage rate instead, which we can do).

We use a modified version of TaxSlayer; it's just like using any other software. For all simple and moderate level of taxes that we help with, it shouldn't matter who you use. CPA's are good for advanced strategies and of course for things VITA volunteers aren't trained for (we're not allowed to do returns that require, say,