13 states will join the IRS direct income tax filing pilot in 2024 - The Verge
Goodbye, TurboTax. Hello, direct filing (for some people).
This is awesome! Now the IRS just needs to send me my already completed taxes that I just verify, sign, and return, like they do in Sweden.
But... why doesn't anyone think of the millionaires :(
How does that work for businesses and investments? In the UK I don’t have to do anything for taxes with my job, but if the investments in a rental property, or something like that, are over £4000 I have to do the forms.
They give you something to sign. For the majority of people, they just say "Yeah, sounds about right" and they confirm it.
For people with added complexities, they'll do what they already currently do and add in the details you're talking about. It's literally win-win all around except for the tax soft company CEOs.
Intuit seems to be worried. Shortly after this story was published, Rick Heineman, the company’s communications VP, emailed The Verge with an aggressive statement calling the IRS’s pilot “redundant” and “half-baked.”
“The Direct File scheme is a solution in search of a problem,” he wrote, adding that it could end up “costing billions of dollars in taxpayer money.”
"Yeah you morons! Don't use the free tools that the govt provides you! Pay us to do it!"
hes literally pointing out the problem with their own product..."redundant","solution in search of problem", "costs taxpayers stupid money".
... dude theres 4 fingers point back at you.
And the last one is flipping him off.
Very good news. Tired of giving money to the tax prep vampires. But initial roll out is for simple tax situations (W-2 and deducting student loan interest).
Why can’t this program also apply to selling of stocks/options as well? This information is already furnished to the IRS
This information is already furnished to the IRS
The fact that you sold it is already furnished to the IRS, yes. But not what your cost basis was, therefore not what you actually owe. You have to either calculate that yourself or have someone who knows what they're doing do it for you.
Some fancy trades perhaps not, but I have yet to have a line item not have this on it: (basis reported to the IRS)
In some European countries, paying income tax means that the government sends you a form that is already completely filled out except for your deductions, and you simply verify that it looks good, then you add in whatever deductions you have, and file it.
Because 99% of the work in filing our taxes in America is completely worthless. The government already receives information directly from the same companies who send you all those tax forms. The IRS already knows all the information. Making you input it again is just a way to ensure the maximum number of mistakes.
So the IRS is taking a good first step, but we still have a long way to go to catch up to what people in other countries already have. Instead of making me fill out the forms, and the IRS checks for errors, have the IRS automatically fill out the forms, and I'll check for errors. In a civilized country, this is something that we should already have.
It’s because the tax filing software companies lobby lawmakers to prevent exactly what you described. They want to keep the tax code complicated, so people feel the need to continue buying tax software every year. Seriously, tax software lobbies are some of the largest lobby groups in the country.
There was a massive bipartisan (well POTUS and Dems in Congress) push for this in the second half of the Bush Administration. It lost GOP support after the Republican House Caucus turned on Bush for his path to citizenship immigration reform policy. Intuit and its peers have so much money in this and in lobbying.
"According to the IRS, these are the states joining the pilot:
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States with state income tax: Arizona, California, Massachusetts, and New York States without state income tax: Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming"
Nice! I just moved out of NY State (NYC) and down to Florida, free filing and no state income tax for me!
Yeah, but you have to live in Florida…
The politics may suck, but everything else is wonderful down here in Miami. It's a lot different than central and northern Florida.
Ugh, another example of government overreach. This is just going to make it harder for me to pretend to do taxes for 6 hours. What, do I have to keep the terms of service open to “read” for 6 hours? Who’s going to believe that?
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![[VERGE] 13 states join the IRS direct-file test after tax prep firms dropped the ball](https://lemmings.world/pictrs/image/808e6dea-bddb-4eab-9d6f-a3bb81544024.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=196)