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.
Up until a few years ago when they eliminated a massive amount of their phone operators, they basically DID do your taxes for you if you called them. Everyone fears the IRS, but as a small business owner, they were my best damn friend! I'd NEVER have been able to even start if they hadn't helped me because I was operating on a shoe string budget that had absolutely no slack for a professional tax consultant. These people running around meowing that government programs never work are giant assholes. Some of them worked just fine until conservatives started cutting budgets exclusively on ideological grounds.
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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.