fuck Turbo Tax
The Internal Revenue Service has quietly built its own prototype system to allow Americans to file tax returns digitally and free of charge, according to three current and former agency officials, essentially creating government software that could disrupt the tax-prep industry.
The system was developed by the IRS and U.S. Digital Service, the White House’s technology consulting agency. It will be available through a pilot program for a small group of taxpayers by January, when the 2024 filing season begins, said the people briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal agency conversations.
A free filing system offered directly by the federal government could upset a commercial tax prep market estimated by research firm IBIS World to be worth $14.4 billion this year.
In April, when the IRS reported a spending plan to Congress for that money, Commissioner Daniel Werfel said the agency would consider a “question-based electronic service to prepare and file tax returns directly with the IRS.”
The agency plan also would allow taxpayers to solicit help from customer service representatives through secure online portals. That threatens to encroach on another area where tax prep companies try to differentiate themselves from the IRS by employing legions of accountants and other experts to serve filers in premium product lines.
encroach pls
wow, critical support for the IRS in its fight against turbotax?
I thought they literally weren't allowed to do this. Like the deal was that intuit etc. would offer a free filing service, and the government wouldn't offer its own, so they could have market share.
Absolutely disgusting arrangement that serves absolutely no one but the tax prep companies (already insane that this is a kind of business) so if the IRS is taking the first steps to end it, that's great.
Those deals exist, but IRS has authority to do this. Tax Law Center wrote a blog piece summarizing it.
Next step would be to just be normal and send us a bill or a check every year.
yeah the article mentions that the lobbyists are spending millions against this, but the encouraging part is the funding for this program is from the IRA bill from last year
I find this announcement to be encouraging too. I probably came off dismissive and I shouldn't have. My mind is just poisoned and it's hard to think anything good will happen ever.
It's going to run on a server with 64 bits of ram and a telegraph line.
This can be great if they go through with it - the IRS should already have a record of your tax documents and so can auto-populate for you. For most people, filing federal taxes will be as easy as clicking a few confirmation boxes. (Of course, many people itemize, file schedule Cs or have other specifics, but this system will still benefit them to the extent it auto populates the base data).
Both the irs and turbo tax are run through the same system (intuit) literally the only thing preventing this has been concern for losing profits
Is there any indication this will auto-populate information for the taxpayer? It sounds to me like it’s just an advancement beyond the existing Free Fillable Forms.
On the one side, you know this is going to be some janky lowest bidder bullshit that doesn't work and crashes the minute five people try to file at once.
Also, the sheer volume of ratfucking. TurboTax will spend millions paying people to bring the service down.
On the other, I can already see the SCOTUS opinion claiming it's unconstitutional.
Good TT has gotten out of control. Their program has been increasingly shitty for the price.
I used OLT for mine, which was linked from the IRS website. I didnt pay fees for fed or state either. If you make too much i think they charge you but I havent had to pay for a state return ever since I stopped living in one state and working in another cause i live near a border. Turbo Tax is obviously a scam, but most people don't itemize do you don't need it at all. Just use one of the free links from the IRS.
They're gonna fuck it up on purpose so they can continue to argue against sane common sense ideas
i use taxslayer. used to use turbo tax for free but finally got healthcare so now they're trying to charge me 60 bucks cause my taxes somehow became too complicated by adding 1 more forum with literally barely anything on it
i read about tax slayer on the irs site and did the whole thing for free thru them
I call bullshit on this programme. I filed through it and it only covered federal taxes. State taxes still cost as much as Turbotax charges. It was the exact same bait and switch.
You were using one of the Free File Alliance ones and yeah, the state portions aren't covered by any IRS agreements since they're state-by-state (dumb shit).
I just download TurboTax every year, there's like 2 functions in one DLL file to patch and then you can use it for free, free federal e-file, etc.
The state portion is still not free to file electronically so I just print it and mail it.
I just download TurboTax every year, there’s like 2 functions in one DLL file to patch and then you can use it for free, free federal e-file, etc.
I'm ashamed that I did not know this!
The state portion is still not free to file electronically
Do you mean legally or practically?
If you've already filed through a free file program, it was not this one.
