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Comment by Retric | Hacker News Reader

There is already software out there to handle your federal income taxes for free. However, to use Free File Tax Software. This program is available if your AGI is $57,000 or less: http://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsp?ck

http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html

PS: Anyone can still use free forms: http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=237156,00.html

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Which is stupid, IMO.

There's no reason not to have the e-file stuff directly on the irs.gov website.

Instead, it's farmed out to 3rd party sites who try to trick people into buying add-on services. It's ridiculous, but I'm sure they lobby hard to keep it that way, so it's probably not changing anytime soon.

Again, one more instance of the unhealthy trend in giving for-profit, 3rd-party companies your sensitive personal info, that the US Govt should be handling and be responsible for directly in the first place, making identity-theft and such nefarious activities easier.

The really unhealthy trends are the treating of a government id number as sensitive and the general mislabeling of fraud as identity theft.

Why a $57,000 limit?

Supposedly if you are over that limit you are rich enough to pay for a commercial software. Apparently government does not want to take business completely from the likes of Intuit.

That's the limit the Free File Alliance has negotiated.

http://freefilealliance.org/

Shhh. I have over the limit and have used the service for several years. Surprisingly, their automated error checking doesn't check for this.

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