Happy Tax Season!

[*bfine32*]

(04-09-2019, 08:54 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: 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.

Well, I still have almost one week before I must file and I have to pay back my interest free loan.

WTS, I think taxation is one of, if not the, biggest racket in American society. Tax me flately and tax my consumption and be done with it. I shouldn't be basing purchases, dependents, distribution of my money, ect... on what kind of crazy tax benefit/hit I will take.