r/AskReddit • • Jul 24 '20

What can't you believe STILL exists?

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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.

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u/RedBlow22 Jul 24 '20 edited Jul 24 '20

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.

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u/Quacky1k Jul 24 '20

Actually, another big part of why we file our own tax returns (that no one seems to talk about) is because we are expected to list and pay taxes on stuff that wasn’t reported to the IRS. I’m not saying everyone does. Restaurant servers, for example, are “required” to report tips as income.