Article says some states may refuse to participate. Well since it’s a program that helps people and provides a free option instead of using a corporate tax preparer, then I assume all GOP states will hate it and call it liberal socialism somehow. Betcha we hear the same argument we get with healthcare … " The libs want to force you to use this and take away your ability to choose"
Texas must be soooo mad they don’t have income tax so can’t really do anything about it.
Texas was one of the states that could participate in the trial. But it is Texas, so I’m not holding my breath that they will continue being cool with it. Fingers crossed though.
Wait. I thought is was a federal tax system. Does it do state taxes also? I missed that.
It will do federal taxes for everyone, and can also do state taxes for people in states that opt in. Only a handful of states were included in the beta testing version this year, but they’re opening it up to any state that agrees to participate next year.
I was pressed for time when filing this year, so I didn’t want to experiment with the IRS’ new program and just went with FreeTaxUSA since I knew it would be fast and have my data from last year saved. For those who tried the new program this year, how was it?
I itemized for the first time this year so I couldn’t use it, but I did fill it out completely as a comparison point to make sure itemizing was worth it. It was pretty painless, not very different from free filing through various other companies.
I got halfway through it and one of the forms I needed to use was not supported, so I basically wasted my time testing it out. I don’t remember the form, but I felt like it was a basic thing.
I went with FreeTaxUSA as I always do and it was good as always.
I think having to fill out tax forms instead of the government just telling you what you owe is pretty insane and this IRS program does nothing to resolve the actual issue.
That was my issue too. I think it was something with retirement like it didn’t support either 401k or IRA contributions.
I jumped back to freetaxusa since I’ve been using them for years.
They require you to use a third party, ID.me, to even sign in to use it.
Fuck that.
Without that, I would love to use it.
So you’re completing and filing your taxes by mail, I guess? Or using a different third party, like H&R Block?
The problem is that the actual government is the one requiring me to use a third party company, that is not part of the government, for me to give them information so that the government can verify who I am.
I use FreeTaxUSA, and never had to do ID.me.
It’s an arbitrary requirement, that is stupid in the sense that the GOVERNMENT knows everything about me so WHY should I need to use a COMPANY’S bullshit to verify that?
TurboTax: “But don’t you love us?”
This program will exist until the next #GOP administration.
Interestingly this is all part of a trump-administration effort to help consumers file taxes without having to pay $100 or whatever to tax filing software companies.
Ahhhhh almost had you with that huh? Almost? no? Yeah okay fair enough. It was a stretch.