Anyone else get hosed on Taxes this year?

[unterhausen]

The IRS has had the ability to fill out people's forms and send it to them for signature for a very long time, well before commerce was allowed on the internet. It's not just the software companies, H&R Block and similar companies would be decimated if the IRS sent a filled-out form. So they lobbied heavily against it. All that kind of company can really do with any competence is fill out a simple form and ask for $40. Nobody is lobbying for the other side of that equation, so it didn't happen.

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

The IRS has had the ability to fill out people's forms and send it to them for signature for a very long time, well before commerce was allowed on the internet. It's not just the software companies, H&R Block and similar companies would be decimated if the IRS sent a filled-out form. So they lobbied heavily against it. All that kind of company can really do with any competence is fill out a simple form and ask for $40. Nobody is lobbying for the other side of that equation, so it didn't happen.

In a recent working paper on the feasibility of pre-populated tax forms, some economists found that 40-50% of all tax forms could be accurately pre-populated.

https://www.nber.org/papers/w30008

[Novasfyre]

Also another tier of tax cut expired this year, so more people at lower incomes paying more taxes.