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 :(
If they are missing something, is it easy to ammend what they send, or do you gotta start from scratch and you can only use that as a reference?
There is no ‘scratch’, you login and practically everything is filled out. If you want to change or add something, you can do so.
Sounds awesome. Wish we had that.
Yep, it’s all a bunch of forms and you can edit the info that is prefilled.
There’s a rare few forms which still need to be sent in on paper, but most can be sent in digital form.
This is nearly how it works in Canada. I grant access from my accounting software to my Canada revenue agency account and pretty much just verify it’s correct and fill in some of the non registered investment stuff which happens to be mostly with the institution whose software I use anyways.
The software is free. It even checks my wifes to optimize the returns.
What do your wives do to be an object of interest for a tax agency?
Big only fans following.
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.
There’s tax preparation software companies here in Sweden too but almost only businesses use them because most individuals don’t need it.
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!”
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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.
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Some fancy trades perhaps not, but I have yet to have a line item not have this on it: (basis reported to the IRS)
Intuit must be pissed.
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"According to the IRS, these are the states joining the pilot:
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.
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That was one of my friend’s selling points about moving here lol I’d get raped with taxes in NYC. I would make $110k/year but I’d be lucky if I saw $85k.
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?
