Free tax preparation software from the government could soon be illegal

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Nov 8, 2012
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The IRS isn't going to calculate the repairs on your rental property, or even decide for you whether to go standard deduction or itemize.
All we're talking about is W-2 earners taking the standard deduction. The IRS already has that information, and it's a simple calculation. People should NOT be forced to have to pay a 3rd party to file a simple return in order to comply with their legal requirement to file tax returns. That is government corruption, pure and simple.

You DONT fucktard.

Here is the 1040: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf

You see that box that says wages? Pencil in Box A of your W2. Was that so difficult? Now just follow along - put the standard deduction amount - put the amount of tax paid. You may have to whip out a magical device called a calculator. Difficult, I know.

Now just fold it up. Put it in an envelope, and mail it. Was that too difficult for you?

No one is forcing anything, other than you telling yourself that you're forced to be a perceived victim. This ISNT difficult, you're just telling yourself that it's difficult to make yourself feel better.


The IRS also has (and will continue) to have its free efile for low income earners: https://www.irs.gov/filing/e-file-options

Quit trying to play the victim. You're wrong.
 

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
85,640
50,869
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It is common sense that the IRS should have a system for electronically filing your taxes and it is also common sense that the large majority of Americans should have no need to waste time filling out tax returns.

This is nothing more than corporate welfare for parasitic companies that on one hand take billions of dollars from Americans who find filling out their taxes to be difficult and plow that money back into government lobbying to ensure that the government doesn’t do anything to make filling out taxes easier.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
48,094
37,297
136
I looked at the sponsors, expecting to only find a few democrats. The 10 Republicans didn't surprise me. The 18 democrats did.

How fortunate we are to have the privilege of experiencing complications and expenses to send the government money

The capture of the government by some industries is bipartisan. Tax prep has long been one of those.
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
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You DONT fucktard.

Here is the 1040: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf

You see that box that says wages? Pencil in Box A of your W2. Was that so difficult? Now just follow along - put the standard deduction amount - put the amount of tax paid. You may have to whip out a magical device called a calculator. Difficult, I know.

Now just fold it up. Put it in an envelope, and mail it. Was that too difficult for you?

No one is forcing anything, other than you telling yourself that you're forced to be a perceived victim. This ISNT difficult, you're just telling yourself that it's difficult to make yourself feel better.


The IRS also has (and will continue) to have its free efile for low income earners: https://www.irs.gov/filing/e-file-options

Quit trying to play the victim. You're wrong.
You're the one trying to play the victim, moron, arguing that we should still use pencil and paper in this day and age. Just fucking shut up. You obviously don't know shit except how to lick govt boot.
 
Nov 8, 2012
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You're the one trying to play the victim, moron, arguing that we should still use pencil and paper in this day and age. Just fucking shut up. You obviously don't know shit except how to lick govt boot.
Lol someone's a wee bit butt hurt.

Oh noes, the horror of writing or typing numbers. It's all just too difficult for poor little Vic.
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,336
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The capture of the government by some industries is bipartisan. Tax prep has long been one of those.
I volunteered a few years ago doing tax prep for a non-profit. That's when I found out that the core business model of the major tax prep companies is charging $500+ to file a 1040ez. They basically exist for no other reason than to skim off working people's tax refunds.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
48,094
37,297
136
I volunteered a few years ago doing tax prep for a non-profit. That's when I found out that the core business model of the major tax prep companies is charging $500+ to file a 1040ez. They basically exist for no other reason than to skim off working people's tax refunds.

I'd be totally fine if the entire industry got squashed.
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,336
136
Lol someone's a wee bit butt hurt.

Oh noes, the horror of writing or typing numbers. It's all just too difficult for poor little Vic.

Are you still bleating, sheep?

Whatever argument you're trying to make here is ridiculously stupid in 2 ways: 1) arguing we should have to use pencil, paper, and snail mail in the computer age because the govt forces us to is like saying we should be happy to go back to horse and buggy if the govt outlawed cars, and 2) I literally work with financial numbers and complex tax returns every day.
 

dank69

Lifer
Oct 6, 2009
36,129
30,521
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You DONT fucktard.

Here is the 1040: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf

You see that box that says wages? Pencil in Box A of your W2. Was that so difficult? Now just follow along - put the standard deduction amount - put the amount of tax paid. You may have to whip out a magical device called a calculator. Difficult, I know.

Now just fold it up. Put it in an envelope, and mail it. Was that too difficult for you?

No one is forcing anything, other than you telling yourself that you're forced to be a perceived victim. This ISNT difficult, you're just telling yourself that it's difficult to make yourself feel better.


The IRS also has (and will continue) to have its free efile for low income earners: https://www.irs.gov/filing/e-file-options

Quit trying to play the victim. You're wrong.
It is 2019. I haven't written a check in over 5 years at least. I haven't mailed anything in far longer. You say "put it in an envelope and mail it" like everyone has envelopes and stamps already. Get it through your fucking head, that shit is an unnecessary inconvenience for a lot of people. It doesn't make us lazy, it makes us efficient. Buy a fucking stamp and buy a fucking envelope. How about you but that shit for everyone if it is so easy? It's wasteful.
 

SMOGZINN

Lifer
Jun 17, 2005
14,221
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The IRS also has (and will continue) to have its free efile for low income earners:

So, that is mostly a scam, enabled by the IRS. The truth is even the IRS agrees that only about 3% of the people that try to free-file with those programs end up not paying a fee to them. They are basically set up to make it more difficult to use their program for free than to just do your taxes with out them. They have 'gotchas' throughout the program to force you to pay.

It is common sense that the IRS should have a system for electronically filing your taxes

They do. I have used the free fillable forms for at least 5 years. It is a completely free way to e-file your taxes.

That's when I found out that the core business model of the major tax prep companies is charging $500+ to file a 1040ez.

As of this year the 1040ez form no longer exists. Everyone must now do a full 1040.
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,336
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As of this year the 1040ez form no longer exists. Everyone must now do a full 1040.
And the 1040 has been condensed onto 2 half-sized pages with additional numbered schedules. Well aware of this, thanks.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,136
30,086
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Someone's entire schtick is being a proud douchebag about being on the low end of the Dunning-Kruger scale. His every single post is some variation of "you cucks are all fucking idiots for not being able to see how obvious and easy the solutions to everything are when you're as simple-minded as I am!"

It is somewhat entertaining in its predictability, though.
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
73,286
6,351
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It is somewhat entertaining in its predictability, though.
Reminds me of a poem I learn in German once upon another life that began like this and translate word for word in full in English so:

Ganz genau weiß der Pfau, was man still von ihm will.

Quite exactly knows the peacock, what you motionlessly await from him,

But he likes to make you wait before he does it.
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
73,286
6,351
126
Lol someone's a wee bit butt hurt.

Oh noes, the horror of writing or typing numbers. It's all just too difficult for poor little Vic.
When a lot of people take special interest in pointing out you act like a jerk, you should probably pay some attention. People have been put down and made to feel stupid all of their lives. They react to that and protect themselves from feeling hurt by that in many ways. There are people like you, who suppress any recognition or admission of such feelings by taking any and every chance they can to extol their capacities to manage in any circumstance where others admit to the slightest experience of frustration, and by enraging them by trying to rub such admissions in their noses as signs of your superiority and their weakness, you enrage them, and use their rage vampirically to satisfy your own personal, but suppressed rage, and your own thus unacknowledged need for revenge.

And then there are people with a bit more humanity still clinging to their tattered souls why retain more empathy and can feel empathy and understanding for people, say who dread paying taxes as just one more time when they will have to face how incompetent they have been made to feel.

Some of these will suffer through the ordeal, acquire competence via experience and in turn become the same kind of jerks you fit with who make fun of those farther back the learning curve.

The thing is that no matter how blind you are to your own immature and unhealthily instilled sense of worthlessness you are, and no matter how successfully you deflect that reality from your conscious awareness, the people you try to feed off for your ego gratification will always see you as a prick. And others perhaps more aware of this inner need to feed, will see you as a suffering soul full of unrequited hunger.

There is a way out but the price is the pain of self recognition.
 
Nov 8, 2012
20,828
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When a lot of people take special interest in pointing out you act like a jerk, you should probably pay some attention. People have been put down and made to feel stupid all of their lives. They react to that and protect themselves from feeling hurt by that in many ways. There are people like you, who suppress any recognition or admission of such feelings by taking any and every chance they can to extol their capacities to manage in any circumstance where others admit to the slightest experience of frustration, and by enraging them by trying to rub such admissions in their noses as signs of your superiority and their weakness, you enrage them, and use their rage vampirically to satisfy your own personal, but suppressed rage, and your own thus unacknowledged need for revenge.

And then there are people with a bit more humanity still clinging to their tattered souls why retain more empathy and can feel empathy and understanding for people, say who dread paying taxes as just one more time when they will have to face how incompetent they have been made to feel.

Some of these will suffer through the ordeal, acquire competence via experience and in turn become the same kind of jerks you fit with who make fun of those farther back the learning curve.

The thing is that no matter how blind you are to your own immature and unhealthily instilled sense of worthlessness you are, and no matter how successfully you deflect that reality from your conscious awareness, the people you try to feed off for your ego gratification will always see you as a prick. And others perhaps more aware of this inner need to feed, will see you as a suffering soul full of unrequited hunger.

There is a way out but the price is the pain of self recognition.

Moonie - I'll give you a real reply since you are a real person here that actually creates meaningful posts and meaningful arguments a lot of times.

I give the same ounce of respect that others return. The majority of the screaming baby children in this forum communicate in things like 1-2 sentence replies (with no arguments or substantial debate). Then they often proceed to do more childish acts like downvoting posts as if they made an accomplishment in life - without actually replying or arguing against the posts they downvote. The forum in of itself has literally become a giant circle-jerk with little actual content or debate. It's pretty sad and has gotten downright pathetically partisan.

There are actually a few people here that I often disagree with that I have no problem giving respectful posts to. Those are fairly obvious, and if you review my posts you can clearly see who meets that credential.

In closing - If you act like a child, expect to be treated like one.
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,336
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Moonie - I'll give you a real reply since you are a real person here that actually creates meaningful posts and meaningful arguments a lot of times.

I give the same ounce of respect that others return. The majority of the screaming baby children in this forum communicate in things like 1-2 sentence replies (with no arguments or substantial debate). Then they often proceed to do more childish acts like downvoting posts as if they made an accomplishment in life - without actually replying or arguing against the posts they downvote. The forum in of itself has literally become a giant circle-jerk with little actual content or debate. It's pretty sad and has gotten downright pathetically partisan.

There are actually a few people here that I often disagree with that I have no problem giving respectful posts to. Those are fairly obvious, and if you review my posts you can clearly see who meets that credential.

In closing - If you act like a child, expect to be treated like one.

Which is exactly why, when I reply to you, that I intentionally mimic your writing style, right down to your favorite profanities and namecalling. When you read one of my replies to you (except this one), you are reading one of your own posts thrown back in your face. I'm amused that you didn't notice that. Anyway, if you see a child in those posts, I suggest you look in a mirror.

And BTW, I post here exclusively through Tapatalk, which does not have a downvote function.
 
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mect

Platinum Member
Jan 5, 2004
2,424
1,636
136
Which is exactly why, when I reply to you, that I intentionally mimic your writing style, right down to your favorite profanities and namecalling. When you read one of my replies to you (except this one), you are reading one of your own posts thrown back in your face. I'm amused that you didn't notice that. Anyway, if you see a child in those posts, I suggest you look in a mirror.

And BTW, I post here exclusively through Tapatalk, which does not have a downvote function.
I was wondering if he would be smart enough to recognize this. Apparently not.
 

dank69

Lifer
Oct 6, 2009
36,129
30,521
136
Moonie - I'll give you a real reply since you are a real person here that actually creates meaningful posts and meaningful arguments a lot of times.

I give the same ounce of respect that others return. The majority of the screaming baby children in this forum communicate in things like 1-2 sentence replies (with no arguments or substantial debate). Then they often proceed to do more childish acts like downvoting posts as if they made an accomplishment in life - without actually replying or arguing against the posts they downvote. The forum in of itself has literally become a giant circle-jerk with little actual content or debate. It's pretty sad and has gotten downright pathetically partisan.

There are actually a few people here that I often disagree with that I have no problem giving respectful posts to. Those are fairly obvious, and if you review my posts you can clearly see who meets that credential.

In closing - If you act like a child, expect to be treated like one.
Your first mistake is caring about the voting system on a forum where it doesn't mean anything.
 
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Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
73,286
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downvote.

In closing - If you act like a child, expect to be treated like one.

Downvoting makes me sick. If I disagree with somebody I always give them a reason or just forget about it.

As far as treating people who act like children being a good idea, I disagree. The fact is that the vast majority of people at an emotional level are children. And, while I suspect, also, that I am one of only a small number of people who actually know this, all indications I see are that I am still one myself. There is a simple truth that nobody wants to come to conscious grips with, looking at the world as testament to this, and it is that all of our imagined troubles have their source, not out there with other people, etc. but with ourselves. You have a problem within you if you want to treat others as children who treat you that way. We have met the enemy and it is us. You see almost nobody who actually lives like this. Everybody is pointing a finger at somebody else. All my problems would vanish if but for this and this. No, the kingdom of heaven is within us, and I did once or twice actually see it. :) Then there were those times as a child, remember, maybe watching the clouds float by?

So the issue with taxes for many is lack of experience. I am doing taxes for my niece who has never done them in her life and wanted to pay to have them done. I sat her down to do a free program that required a form for a non-standard income source, a one line item, that put her in the 'have to pay to file' category, so I am doing it for her long hand. Because she has never done taxes, knows that tax laws are massive in number and complex, collapses at the first thought of having to do them herself. Anybody with a normal tax situation can do taxes, but not until they learn how and learn they can learn how without a massive effort. Taxes and finances are intimidating to many people. You have the good fortune to have past the point where you start doing your taxes at the bottom of the hill. You don't even factor in the fact of how long it took you to learn to read. Try your taxes without being able to do that. But everybody can read, right, even people who are dyslexic or transpose from the wrong line.

I would love to watch somebody compute their taxable social security with anuity or pension income with a 100 or below IQ. My guess is that I'm over a hundred but took 85% of the wrong line for somebody before I caught my mistake. How about the health care line. Check the box and enter zero, or put in your health care bill? Read the instructions. Earned income credit? Read the rules, fill out the worksheet. Who get's to declare the kids in case of 50 50 joint custody. Read the rules. Make sure you have your divorce papers in hand. Make sure you know who has the higher AGI, whatever that means. Read the rules, look up what the terms mean, and watch your precious day off time fly by when you could have been doing something you enjoy. And then when you get done and have become a master at doing your own taxes, thump your chest and tell the next person it's easy. Or just leave the chest part out and show somebody who doesn't know how to do it so they will be able to next year.

And while you're at it, tell your congress person to provide a law that says you get a 100 dollar refund if you do your taxes with the government on line e-filing with free government software. Just imagine how much more financially informed and capable the average person will become. Why the fuck should I pay taxes to cover the write off people who pay professional tax preparers and then write off on next years taxes as a deductible expense. How much do you imagine tax preparation companies pay on the dollar they charge you? Do you think the government is recovering that on the other end? Anyway, I gotta go do taxes.