IRS opening free online tax filing program to all 50 states

axios.com

18 points·anigbrowl··6 comments

> Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), an accountant and senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, told Axios in April that he wants to go "way beyond Direct File," calling for a "self-populating form."

> "Why in the heck should you have to fill out your return when the government has all the information. They know what's on your W-2 form before you do. They know what's on your 1099 … Do you know how many mistakes people make?"

This is what I’ve wanted forever, which means the tax preparation lobby will be spending a fortune fighting this.

This is great, for the government. The average person that uses this will just let it fill in the boxes, without even trying to look for anything that might save them money.

Can you demonstrate that this system will be implemented in a manner where the taxpayer will receive a less favorable outcome than they would've filling out forms themselves?

The IRS has all of your financial data from various forms, why would they make your outcome less favorable? Their job is to enforce the tax code, not write it, nor collect more taxes than would otherwise be due.

Honestly, I would just appreciate knowing up front what they think I owe and letting me correct them if I disagree.

TurboTax doesn’t make you pay until the end when you file. Could you put everything into TurboTax using its wizard/conversational approach to see what your return should be and then file using the free tool? I know the average person will do whatever is low effort but that is what I plan to do.

A big problem is that most states also have an income tax--and most of us want a solution which will calculate both federal and state taxes.

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