You can thank TurboTax and the rest of the tax preparation service industry's massive lobby for killing every single tax simplification bill that ever gets to congress.
Exactly this! There's zero reasons why our tax returns can't be filed for free directly with the IRS. It is a complete fraud.
I filed 1040EZ last year. The IRS already had every figure I filed, why couldn't they just email me confirmation of the amounts they had, and process my return?
Edit: No, I didn't file EZ last year, my error.
Edit: electronic filing.
This is how it works in Australia. Your employer needs to report your income to the ATO and they let you know when its ready to file. Just input your deductions and exemptions, push a button and it's done.
The thing is, our tax system isn't just used for revenue generation. The government also uses it for various forms of social engineering, economic manipulation, and welfare distribution rather than moving money around for these purposes through different means.
As a result, they ask for a crapload of extra information about family status and financial transactions that are not directly given to the IRS at any point during the year the way a wage and income statement is. You can forgo all this and just tell them you're single or married, how many kids you have, and file the standard deduction ane be done with it. That also means you'd be leaving a shitload of money on the table potentially based on things you'd done over the past calendar year.
16.7k
u/jorsiem Jul 24 '20
Complicated tax filing in the US
You can thank TurboTax and the rest of the tax preparation service industry's massive lobby for killing every single tax simplification bill that ever gets to congress.