Welcome to Incremental Social! Learn more about this project here!
Check out lemmyverse to find more communities to join from here!

beebarfbadger ,

Won't SOMEBODY think of the poor, poor monopolists who so far made their money exploiting the alternativeless victims at their mercy? Why would their prey give them way too much money now, eh? Socialism! Terrorism! All the bad words, what's in right now? Woke? DEI?

anon_water ,
@anon_water@lemmy.ml avatar

Looks like state filing is excluded.

fuckingkangaroos ,

Why would the IRS make software for the states, it doesn't make sense.

Got_Bent ,

As a tax accountant, I sincerely hope this gets to a point where a vast majority of the population has no need for my services.

I used to play in the big leagues where none of my clients would ever qualify for this and their returns routinely took upwards of a hundred hours to complete. Those guys need to keep paying.

Now I play down in the minors a couple steps above the Block, and I hate seeing the owner sell these three or four hundred dollar returns that might take me an hour to complete in the first year and maybe thirty minutes in subsequent years.

brbposting OP ,

That’s a very interesting transition. Was the catalyst neutral or happy one, or perhaps a sad one?

Got_Bent ,

Mutual disdain was the catalyst. I did it for eight years and probably lost fifteen years of life expectancy from it. Ungodly toxic environment. Fuck big firm accounting. Fuck them all in the most demeaning, painful way imaginable.

I make roughly one third the money today, and I'm much happier for it. I still make a comfortable living where I don't particularly worry about money, so what would the additional two thirds do for me outside paying medical bills it causes?

No matter how much I try to remove my name from searches, I still get recruited by ambitious young people on a regular basis. I generally make them stop with a response that goes something like this:

I would rather have my eyes gouged out by the white hot barbed penis of Satan himself while he spits in my mouth than return to public accounting for any amount of money.

ryanalexhowell ,

All praise Deditutankh, the Egyptian god of taxes!

Fades ,

Biden did that, among many other great things for the average american citizen

RememberTheApollo_ ,

Now if we could do like other countries and just have the government send a pre formatted document of things like wages, dependents, and other taxable items so we all know what we owe because the government has all that information already. Add what you need as far as write offs or other income and send it back. Done. None of this collection of tons of different forms, figuring out what percent you can write off, etc. and submitting it all hoping you don’t get it wrong and get audited or owe fines and interest.

Delusional ,

Darn I was hoping it'd also be available now since I still haven't filed my taxes this year.

BaardFigur ,

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    Semi_Hemi_Demigod ,
    @Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world avatar

    No, we have 50 states to get through as well. And then all the municipalities.

    Potatos_are_not_friends ,

    God, it's times like this where I wish we merge some states.

    GiddyGap ,

    Sorry, but still very far behind on this and many other things.

    Tregetour ,
    @Tregetour@lemdro.id avatar

    You need to enable JavaScript to use Direct File.

    On the plus side, UBO only had to block one script (on the login page at least).

    K1nsey6 ,
    @K1nsey6@lemmy.world avatar

    Free if you have no other exemptions to file.

    1099? Nope
    Depreciation? Nope
    Tax credits? Nope

    Makes for a great headline though.

    Im sure those of us that do have exemptions other than the standard will see our tax prep fees skyrocket

    meyotch ,

    Maybe not. You will have the same number of tax preparers chasing less work. Through the magic of the Free Market™️, shouldn’t that mean pressure to reduce prices? We can only hope.

    K1nsey6 ,
    @K1nsey6@lemmy.world avatar

    I already saw it reflected this year. My tax prep went up $150

    killwill ,

    I'm no statistics major, but that's like 100% of the sample!!!

    papertowels ,

    Freetaxusa does them for like 20 bucks

    Dkiscoo ,

    I use them. I love telling friends I use that because it sounds like such a scam site

    papertowels ,

    "just put your social here..."

    Emerald ,

    Yeah idk why anyone thought that name was a good idea for their marketing

    FiniteBanjo ,

    Competition does NOT make prices go up, lol.

    jj4211 ,

    Well, the point was that it isn't competition in his scenario. I hope the exclusion of 1099 is temporary, because I had a 1099 for like a few dollars because I had a savings account that technically accrued interest, so as it stands that makes me ineligible. So his concern would be that because the tax prep services are competing against 'free' for that tier, that they'll ramp up prices for the rest to compensate for loss of income.

    Lets_Eat_Grandma ,

    Hypothetical question: If you omitted the couple bucks of income from the 1099 on that one savings account and you later got audited- how much money would you be on the hook for? what would the consequences be in worst case and likely case scenarios?

    I honestly think the government has next to no resources now to go after tax cheats that aren't hiding tens to hundreds of thousands of owed taxes... but would love to hear what others have to say. I suspect missing out on less than a dollar of taxes from omitting a single figure 1099 would not be big enough to chase and if found probably less costly than hiring a preparer every year when averaged out over your lifetime of tax returns.

    jj4211 ,

    Perhaps practically speaking you probably would get an automated form from IRS demanding a few dollars. But it'd be nice if qualification for 'direct file' option didn't rely on "mild tax evasion" for people with savings accounts.

    Yearly1845 ,

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    jj4211 ,

    Given that savings accounts are at 1% interest or so, that's only a thousand dollars in a savings account.

    dan ,
    @dan@upvote.au avatar

    Good savings accounts are above 4% these days. Wealthfront is 5%, Synchrony is 4.75%, Marcus (Goldman Sachs) is 4.4%, Amex, Discover, Capital One, Ally, are 4.25%

    best_username_ever ,

    Why is the USA the only country to have those problems, AND complain about getting free stuff?

    dan ,
    @dan@upvote.au avatar

    Some people in the USA want a solution that immediately fixes every possible problem, and don't quite get the concept of starting small and fixing other stuff over time.

    It's the same with gun control. Some states want to tighten gun laws, and some people are like "that won't solve all the problems! We need nationwide laws!". Sure, but why not accept the win that more and more states are starting to do something, rather than complaining that some problems still exist?

    Stern ,
    @Stern@lemmy.world avatar

    Some progress is better then no progress, and TurboTax et. al. losing in any way is a victory for the rest of us.

    irotsoma ,
    @irotsoma@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah, very limited, but it's very good for more than half of the population that don't have enough deductions to exceed the standard and don't own property (if you properly count houseless "households" that earn income as not owning property and not just renters like most statistics). It's dumb that they have to file a return anyway just to acres money that never should have been collected. Most just don't know how to properly file their W-4 to not have taxes withheld in the first place. Mostly because they follow the directions and/or are afraid of paying a fine plus interest.

    Anyway, it's a step in the right direction. And if we can unbury all of the staff out of the pile of paper returns, we can devote some to go after the rich and their frivolous, often fraudulent deductions and have them pay the tax they owe.

    Preflight_Tomato ,

    Most just don’t know how to properly file their W-4 to not have taxes withheld in the first place.

    How do you do this? How do you calculate what to personally withhold and pay? Is it simply calculating through the income tax?

    Semi_Hemi_Demigod ,
    @Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world avatar

    There's a worksheet that usually comes with it where you answer questions about your living situation - single/married, homeowner/renter, how many kids, etc. - and it gives you a number to put in. It's pretty accurate. I've done it at every job and aside from years with tax credits I've never gotten back more than a few hundred bucks.

    Semi_Hemi_Demigod ,
    @Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world avatar

    I've had 1099s and tax credits and I've never sent in a paper return. I keep the records in case of an audit but it's not like e-file hasn't existed forever.

    irotsoma ,
    @irotsoma@lemmy.world avatar

    But it hasn't always been free to file electronically. The government made it required for them to offer free versions for simple returns, but that was recent.

    Also, access to the Internet isn't universal. You'd be surprised how much of the US doesn't have affordable Internet and a fair number don't have Internet available at all, or limited to just dialup which is not very useful. And a lot of apps don't work right on phone browsers, especially older phones, so then you need a desktop or laptop which a lot of people don't have. Some have access in libraries, but a lot don't or traveling to a library is a burden. And lots of other reasons that internet isn't a given for a large portion of households. So paper is still not just necessary, but the easiest way.

    Emerald ,

    I read

    1099? Nope depreciation. Nope tax credits? Nope

    thermal_shock ,

    are you not capable of taking a win? it's a HUGE step towards disassembling predatory cpas and tax software.

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    it’s a HUGE step towards disassembling predatory cpas and tax software.

    Its a regular sized step, as its targeted primarily at simple filers. But the cutoff is incredibly low. You can't use it if you've got retirement savings through an IRA, if you've got deductions for college expenses, or if you're claiming the child care deduction. I'd wager that's at least half the people who bother to file returns.

    Definitely good news for folks that H&R Block likes to fleece - anyone collecting EITC or Child Tax Credits and not much else. But hardly universal.

    thermal_shock ,

    do you think it won't eventually add that stuff? pretty naive to just "meh" and basically call it a failure. nothing happens overnight.

    frog_brawler ,

    It's not a "failure" but I wouldn't call it a huge win either. It's a small victory with a tiny horn to toot.

    IIRC there was a free version of Turbo Tax that did the same thing years ago... so we're catching up to the old free version now.

    macattack ,

    *An old free version that was purposefully hidden and buried by reverse SEO tactics, but yeah

    bluewing ,

    I would suggest you get hired by the IRS and start rewriting all their ancient code to build in and allow every deduction rule and that it's applied correctly every time so everyone can use it.

    The tax laws are so large and so complex and the code running all this stuff is so old and now locked in because they didn't keep up with updating their software as they went along. I'm amazed they got this far. Oh, and like you, I can't use it either. But that's why I have an accountant.

    Olgratin_Magmatoe ,

    Good. Now make it work for everyone's tax situation.

    Heavybell ,
    @Heavybell@lemmy.world avatar

    The ATO's myTax system is pretty great, I hope with this you guys finally get something as nice.

    whereisk ,

    They don't know what you are talking about my fellow Aussie. Any A in an acronym means "American" to the USAns. That other countries exist that start with A is unfathomable.

    shimura ,

    Mine was too complicated to file for free because I have retirement investments? Seems like a silly reason to force someone to use a paid service.

    Kit ,

    Same. It sucks having to pay H&R Block $300/year to file my taxes, but their online records save my ass every time I buy a house. I sincerely hope we see a more robust free file system in my lifetime.

    KevonLooney ,

    $300? Just use Free Tax USA. It's free for federal and $15 for each state. No, you don't need extra stuff, unless you think you'll be audited.

    If you spend a little time figuring out your tax situation, you don't need to pay someone else to do it. Here's a secret: the people they have doing your taxes don't necessarily have a master's degree in tax. Those people are helping corporations or wealthy people with trusts.

    Kit ,

    You missed the point of my reply. I pointed out that the benefit of H&R block is that they keep the records easily accessible, so when I buy a home I just link the H&R block account to the lender and they pull all of my tax and income history. Saves countless hours of gathering info and filling out paperwork. That's worth $300/year to me.

    KevonLooney ,

    Do you buy houses all the time? Do you want your income info to be sold to anyone who will pay? You are paying extra for them to have access to your info.

    Kit ,

    I buy a house on average once every 3 years and it saves me apx $2,200 worth of time.

    JackbyDev ,

    You wanna pay and extra ~$280 a year because you save a little bit of time when you buy a house? You know FreeTaxUSA has all your documents too, right?

    Kit ,

    You've never bought a house if you think it's saving "a little bit" of time. We're talking easily 40 hours of gathering and filing paperwork here. That's $2,200 of my time. If I buy a house once every 7 years it works out.

    JackbyDev ,

    I've bought two houses and it did not take me 40 hours of gathering paperwork. Maybe an hour or so maximum to get my paperwork for the bank.

    brbposting OP ,

    You’re not supposed to be wrecking our economy like that. Spend, baby, spend.

    shimura ,

    😂😂

    jj4211 ,

    Sounds like having any 1099 is 'too complicated'. So anyone with any sort of savings account that managed to get $10 of interest over a year... So if you have like a thousand dollars in a boring old savings account you are 'too complicated'.

    shimura ,

    Yep, kinda surprised me to be honest.

    Landless2029 ,

    Yeah. Mine was "too complicated" because I had an HSA. Are you fucking kidding me?

    shimura ,

    Feels like a ruse

    KillingTimeItself ,

    why isn't this constitutionally protected.

    Can we pass an amendment for this shit? It's actually kind of fucked up.

    DudeImMacGyver ,

    Kind of? Are you going to tell us that the US healthcare system is "sorta silly" next?

    rickyrigatoni ,
    @rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee avatar

    From a certain point of view? Yes.

    KillingTimeItself ,

    i mean, it is sorta silly. Not full sillyness, full sillyness would be forcing people in immediate life threatening injury to recite the ABC's backwards before operation as protocol.

    DudeImMacGyver ,

    Sure, there's degrees of silly

    KillingTimeItself ,

    i spose there would be, but at the end of the day. Silly is a rather silly word to be using in this manner.

    skullone ,

    Sorta silly?! It's fucked beyond belief. Source: me, someone who profits off the healthcare industry as a corpo. Sorry 🤷.

    KillingTimeItself ,

    god if i had the arcane knowledge of the entire field of healthcare, i would do some unbelievably fucked up shit.

    And by that i mean writing open documentation that is continually maintained and represents most healthcare providers in the US specifically to fuck up their entire existence.

    skullone ,

    Doo iiiiit! (If you can).

    Honestly I do the best I can to fudge numbers and drive down prices, but I can only do so much. They're eventually going to catch on and replace me with someone who doesn't give a fuck.

    KillingTimeItself ,

    lol, perhaps one of these days i will have enough expendable income and time to dedicate to this kind of shit.

    It'd make for a rather fun experience.

    JeffKerman1999 ,

    I think that some companies like turbotax are employing lobbyists to make impossible filing for taxes unless you go through a gatekeeper

    KillingTimeItself ,

    yep, which is why its weird that we don't have a legally protected avenue of direct filing.

    GiddyGap ,

    I have a couple of other constitutional amendments I'd like to advance before this.

    KillingTimeItself ,

    idk man i think i disagree honestly.

    Tax is one of the very few constants that we all have to legally deal with, aside from like, auto insurance.

    Dekthro ,
    @Dekthro@lemm.ee avatar

    Eat shit [insert private company here]

    Bluefalcon ,

    I hope every CEO gets the worse form of cancer and dies slowly.

    Emmie ,

    😂

    My chaotic soul appreciates the garbage bin trash level of discourse

    damnedfurry ,

    Even the founder of Costco (only stepped down as CEO a few years ago), a company famous both for how well it treats its customers, and its workforce?

    Bluefalcon ,

    A few bad apple spoil the bunch.

    Cethin ,

    It might have treated them well compared to the competition, but they didn't get as large as they are without making massive profits off the work of their employees. There's a difference between treating the well and treating them fairly.

    damnedfurry ,

    making massive profits off the work of their employees.

    Labor is a cost, not a source of profit, what kind of moronic statement is this? If employees were a source of profit, the notion of downsizing would never exist--why would a company ever lay anyone off, if workers create more value than their wage?

    Cethin ,

    Labor is the source of all profit. How would the company make money if no one did anything? Companies use their control of the means of production to leverage workers into doing labor. They then sell what the labor creates to make money.

    They didn't create anything themselves. They had ownership of the means and that gives them ownership of the output that they profit off of. Money doesn't just appear. Something has to be produced, which is done through labor.

    Sure, sometimes an employee costs more money than they return. First, that doesn't mean they created no value, just less value than they cost to employ. Second, sometimes this does decrease profit, but is done as a short term reduction of overhead while things change, or it's just dumb business which isn't uncommon.

    damnedfurry ,

    Labor is the source of all profit. How would the company make money if no one did anything?

    Charge the customer more for the finished product than what it cost to produce it. Obviously.

    The simple fact is that if employees were a source of profit, businesses would all try to hire as many people as they possibly could, because not doing so would literally be leaving money on the table for no reason. But obviously that is not what goes on. When a business is in trouble financially, what's more common, a hiring freeze, or a hiring spree?

    Cethin ,

    Charge the customer more for the finished product than what it cost to produce it. Obviously.

    If there is no labor there is no finished product. Labor creates the thing being sold. Value is extracted from labor and sold.

    The simple fact is that if employees were a source of profit, businesses would all try to hire as many people as they possibly could, because not doing so would literally be leaving money on the table for no reason. But obviously that is not what goes on. When a business is in trouble financially, what's more common, a hiring freeze, or a hiring spree?

    This is exactly what they do. They hire as many employees as they possibly can afford to hire and have the means of production for them to operate on. That's why as a company is more successful they generally have more employees, to extract more wealth from their labor. Yes, sometimes they don't have things for them to work in that will generate more value than it costs to employ them, in which case they fire them. If they do have the ability and means for them to work on something then they are profit generating.

    Yeah, when a company is doing poor financially they cut overhead. This is done as a safety mechanism because they can no longer afford those costs, not because they weren't generating revenue. There's a lot of things that can cause this, and he's it sometimes results in lower profits. The goal is to get their finances in order and stabilize, then continue to grow and expand again. The goal isn't to shrink and keep shrinking. If that created profit then the most successful companies would be the smallest ones, not the largest.

    GhostFence ,

    Eh, cancer is no joke. It doesn't discriminate on who it hits. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, even though I would snicker if these CEOs get hit by lightning lol

    Bluefalcon ,

    Ah fuck it, was going to be cryptic but ill just tell the story.

    I worked for Duke university and one of the people in our department had stomach cancer. The head of the department, provost, CEO and president sent out emails asking if anyone would donate their leave for the person in their hospital being treated for cancer. If the person didn't get the days then they were going to drop them from the company insurance It was bad so the person had to stay in the hospital.

    I hope they all get the most the worse form of cancer and slowly die with no family around. If there is a hell, they deserve it.

    GhostFence ,

    Oh man freaking brootal. Dropping them from the insurance when they needed it the most? This is we need "socialized" medical insurance.

    Bluefalcon ,

    Universal healthcare should be a right.

    GhostFence ,

    Amen to that!

    njordomir ,

    Also, the worst hemmeroids ever and a special CEO diet consisting of nothing but exlax and habanero peppers.

    the_crotch ,

    Honestly, they're probably thrilled. Legislation forced them to provide a free product for this sort of simple, no frills filing, so they won't be losimg any paying customers to this and probably won't have to spend dev and qa time supporting the free tier anymore

    mlg ,
    @mlg@lemmy.world avatar

    Intuit is anything but intuitive

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • technology@lemmy.world
  • random
  • incremental_games
  • meta
  • All magazines
    •