greyfri;690662
There is absolutely no non political reason the US Fed government cannot provide prefilled returns itself for individuals with simple income 1099-INTs, W-2s and the like. That would account for a lot of people, perhaps even the majority of taxpayers. But the software providers (Intuit, H&R Block) don't like it, CPAs/ tax preparers don't like it and big chains like Jackson Hewitt and H&R Block don't like it, and they form a potent bloc.
A few years back Rick Santorum, Senator (and Presidential candidate) of PA tried to pass a bill making it illegal for the NWS to maintain it's own web site to give out weather info. The idea was to benefit Accuweather, a private forecaster based in PA. Banning the IRS from prefilling simple returns is no different.
Yes. But, this is all about lobbying, right? What has it to do with capitalism as the thread starter says?
There are lot more examples of lobbying.
Corporations dont want subsidized healthcare
Car companies dont want subways
etc etc...
For crying out loud, FAA was not even willing to declare that 737 max is unsafe due to lobbying.
But already Republicans and right wing nuts like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity are yelling that government should not do anything. Nothing should be regulated and power to corporations.
To me, $40 per year is peanuts as far as tax is concerned and I dont care about IRS not providing the tax software free. If I have to pick my fight I would rather focus on healthcare, clean energy, environment preservation, predatory lending etc with common good/public welfare in mind than for this cause.
Lobbying w.r.t following is of more concern for me now.
Today, electric vehicles are so popular because of the rebates introduced by Obam admin and this admin is focusing on bringing back fuels and beefing up oil exploration etc. That is a big concern for me.
Current admin is rolling back regulations on coal and other pollutants. Concern for me.
Current admin rolling back bank regulations. Concern for me.
Current admin vs net neutrality. Concern for me.
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In India (and in some other Western countries), the online return is done by Income Tax Department and it does provide pre-filled returns for items that are already deducted by TDS. That accounts for a lot of people. It makes my filing in India much easier. The Indian government runs on deficit, so do most Euro government. The populations of those countries don't seem to have a problem with this.
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Yeah right! what is the quality of these forms? I file Georgia tax using Pdf form provided by Georgia tax department and it is horrible that I get audited for no reason. If I dont enter value in some column, then it does not take it as 0 and there is an audit. There is no means to put "-" sign for negative number and there is an audit.
