04-09-2019, 08:54 PM
We are less than a week away from the filing deadline this year which means (most) people can start the year-long hiatus where they don't think much about taxes beyond how much is taken from their paycheck. One thing most people fail to realize is that the IRS could calculate your return for you. They have all of the information, and in fact they calculate it all themselves and make adjustments after you do it yourself. Check out your tax transcripts on the IRS website if you're ever curious about this.
So if the IRS has this information, and calculates it all for us already and relies on their calculations over our own, why do we have to file our returns ourselves? The answer is corporate lobbyists. For a long time, now, companies like H&R Block and Intuit (the company being TurboTax) have successfully lobbied for a policy that prevents the IRS from providing free tax filing capabilities for all Americans. Today, the House passed a law that would codify this policy and make it law.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/house-backs-bill-barring-irs-from-offering-free-tax-filing-services/2019/04/09/
What frustrates me most about this is that the Democrats control the House. They could have passed the bill with the good parts in it and not included this prohibition for the IRS. This is just one example of many where corporate interests trump the interests of the people, and it highlights how this is a problem on both sides of the aisle.
So if the IRS has this information, and calculates it all for us already and relies on their calculations over our own, why do we have to file our returns ourselves? The answer is corporate lobbyists. For a long time, now, companies like H&R Block and Intuit (the company being TurboTax) have successfully lobbied for a policy that prevents the IRS from providing free tax filing capabilities for all Americans. Today, the House passed a law that would codify this policy and make it law.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/house-backs-bill-barring-irs-from-offering-free-tax-filing-services/2019/04/09/
Quote:Liberals abandoned a last-minute rebellion Tuesday over a bill to change the Internal Revenue Service, with Democratic leaders easily pushing legislation through the House that would bar the IRS from creating free tax preparation software.
The House approved the bipartisan legislation on a voice vote as liberals, who feared the measure would enrich private tax preparers at the expense of millions of taxpayers, gave up their fight, in part because of the value of other elements of the legislation.
The bill includes other changes to the nation’s tax collection agency such as protections from private debt collectors and millions of dollars in program assistance for low-income taxpayers.
On Tuesday, ProPublica reported that the legislation included a provision to codify an existing arrangement preventing the IRS from creating online tax filing software to compete with private services such as TurboTax.
What frustrates me most about this is that the Democrats control the House. They could have passed the bill with the good parts in it and not included this prohibition for the IRS. This is just one example of many where corporate interests trump the interests of the people, and it highlights how this is a problem on both sides of the aisle.
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
