And not only Intuit and H&R Block lobbying, either. Taxpayers' "advocates" like Howard Jarvis and Grover Norquist have allied themselves with Intuit etc in their efforts to keep taxes complicated and painful. And they don't even lie about it. Norquist testifies in front of Congress saying stuff like, "people wouldn't mind taxes as much if you made the process easier... And that's bad."
Improving the tax fillings system has nothing to do with the tax code. The tax code is actually quite simple, what makes it complex are the credits, and deductions added it. The average salary employee just has to know their tax bracket to calculate their taxes.
Look at all the corporation-backed politicians who got all upset about this, lol. Oh noes, their campaign donors are going to make less money off of people filing taxes
Exactly as it should be. I don't know why we tolerate our tax system. Our government also has all the information, so demanding citizens all keep their own records and meticulous sort through them each year is idiotic.
In the Netherlands as well, usually takes me 5 min. Because the tax is already withhold from your monthly paycheck I usually get money back. Mind that you can chose not to do that, but well doing taxes is more fun when it takes you 5 min and you get a few hundreds or even thousands back. If you dont give permission for the monthly thing paid by the employer I think you have to fill in yourself and you will be paying thousands by the end of the year. Guess some people do that for privacy reasons or it gives them a sense of control, however since you still need to pay and give the info at the end of the year I cant really see how that argument works.
@@swamidude2214 exactly how it works here in Portugal too, we just check if everything is correct, add some few things, then we just get rained on with aome couple thousands
Did you guys know that companies like turbo tax and H&R Block have repeteadly lobbied the US government to ensure the system stays complex and hard so people keep using their service? But remember, your vote is treasured and valued in this country 🙂
@cawndorWell.... lobbying is just trying to influence political decicions. Like environmental organization giving estimate on policy impact on environment. Ideally politicians shouldn't benefit from it other than being able to make better decicions. If politicians are given something in return for listening to lobbyists that should be just called legalized bribery. Unless it's not legal in which case it should be just... bribery.
*mean while Dutch tax agency* “Alright so we made the calculations already just make sure the information we have is correct sign here, here and here.”
I love that every year logging into the stupid government website to quickly scroll through all the meaningless letters and numbers and just click accept at the bottom.
I'm going to bet the Dutch government doesn't care about some forms of earned income. for example if you sell a used car on Facebook marketplace for cash. the government doesn't know how much you sold it for unless you tell them. the money from that sale is taxable income. So the Dutch government probably doesn't worry about that and is hoping most people are honest
No, they won't, ever. The idea is to instil fear in people to let the IRS know more than they really do. As long as you file the information they already know, basically, your main job, and anything online still get reported. As long as you pay those taxes, your good, but they also want you to report on stuff they don't know about, sales made with cash that isn't recorded.
the funny thing is, the government already knows everything they need to know, its just that these filing companies have lobbied it for these forms they send to be as confusing as possible to get people to subscribe to their services
They don't know what you owe. That's because congress keeps carving out exemptions. Government doesn't track everything in your life and in some situations where they do, they are prevented by law from sharing that information with other agencies. But lets assume you are married and get a divorce. What you will owe will change when your spouse leaves you. Suppose you donated 5k to a food bank, now you have a deduction thst would lower your taxes. Filing actually reports this stuff.
The IRS or CRA dont know what tou owe until everything is compiled. They have all your employment income and investment income. However The IRS is not an omnipresent being that knows what you spent on medical, rent, or made from self-employment income. The ideal system would be you simply submit the deductions your claiming and nothing else. The so called “post card” method. With the level of automation in place your basically already there we just have this relic of a tax prep industry to phase out slowly without destroying potentially a million well paying jobs
but, but, won't anyone think about Intuit shareholders?! Meanwhile, Europe has had automatic "Ready Return" tax filing since 1999. The IRS can actually do 95% of the populations' taxes for us with one press of a keystroke...
@@puff7306 we arent bwhind per se, more that it keeps jobs in existamce that otherwise dont need to be. Unless you going to write a lot of stuff off, the foverment already knows how much you owe them or they owe you. And they have been knowing for forever.
@@outlaw451 "keeps jobs in existence" no, just no. Doing pointless jobs so that a company can say they're bringing x amount of jobs into the country is so SO debunkable. Not to mention that so many of the jobs for these companies are outsourced to other countries anyways. So basically the whole thing is a moot point...
In Taiwan you just go in your local National Taxation office with your ID. They input your info in the computer where your work history comes up and tell you if you owe anything. The whole process takes about 15 minutes or less and it's free. And if you have any write offs or things to declare , the process might take you an extra 10 minutes or so and it's still free
No, Turbo Tax suspended their free version, it was stated pretty clearly this season. It is also not listed in the government's list of free providers anymore.
wait wait wait... is that why the biden is capable of doing this? is free file alliance finally down? i thought tax business like turbotax had negototitated a deal where federal government cannot give return free filing or any free tax filing as long free file alliance exists.
Most are only free for people who are low income with uncomplicated taxes too. Now the problem with that is college adds a fair amount of complexity and the low income is very very low in most cases. Like under 20,000 a year
@@riffpophop yeah, but the falsehood about the TurboTax free option was that they kept marketing it like it was sufficient for almost everyone when the actual amount of people who could complete their taxes with it was significantly smaller. Anyways, the free option has since been restored for a while now, and they market it as effective for 37% of people who file in the US.
Dude, I use Turbo tax and "I don't have such problems". I don't understand why so many people have such a heavy issue with them, either my taxes are simple enough to use their free shit, or they aren't and I did them myself, which, while more annoying, was mostly due to quarterly taxes and generally high taxation rates, not with how to file.
@@Bat0541 TurboTax costs substantially more for different people. for example, if youre a musician and do contract work, you might have to pay hundreds more to use their service. the point is that TurboTax was supposed to be free, but it isnt because of intense lobbying
@@ratofthecity6351 that and the fact every year since covid they've botched some basic thing. 2020 taxes they botched the whole deal with the stimulus checks, causing people to think they only owe a couple hundred when they owe thousands, or are due a refund and get nothing 2021 they botched pre-establishing payment plans by giving the taxpayers asking for it estimated tax vouchers for 2022, so they end up not actually paying on 2021 and incurring avoidable penalty/interest. 2022 taxes? They signed so many people up for an auto draft of their entire liability on tax day and didn't tell them, so they suddenly have $1-2000 pulled from their account when they intended to pay over time, or worse, cause a double payment when the taxpayer tries to pay manually, therefore leaving them with bank fees due to the cancelled payment/overdraft and bad check penalties from the IRS. turbotax can go suck a fat one. They've pissed me off about all this way too much. And it's cause I work in that field and see so much of their screwups
Yeah, we have masted the art of slipstreaming people to defraud Centrelink with the ATO. In all seriousness though, the ATO is pretty good at getting that done quickly and easily.
@@CaptainAlliance If at the end of the financial year you have paid more taxes than what you owe, then it automatically calculates what it owes you back and you can just click an ok button for it to be sent back to you.
My mother hasn't lived in the country for like 30 years, she always owes the IRS nothing, and still tax season is a really stressful time that causes her to be at her computer for days grumbling about it (she files her own taxes, partly because there's not a lot of resources for her specific situation and partly because she already knows how to do this and that she won't have to pay the IRS so why pay an accountant?) Edit: she has repeatedly said she'll probably renounce her citizenship at some point just so she won't have to do taxes
That’s when you know the tax code is FUBAR. Someone is willing to renounce their citizenship to avoid filing. Props to your mom for putting up with it for so long.
They could’ve done this for such a long time, but they didn’t do this because TurboTax and other companies were practically dumping cash into the IRS pockets to basically prevent this Edit I screwed this up and said IRS instead of Congress sorry
Do you really think that they would arrange your taxes so that you make the highest possible deductions? You really believe that your taxes will be minimized by the “Service”?
Technically the IRS doesn't know how much you owe them. They have a vauge upper and lower limit figured out, but unless you're being audited they don't have an exact number.
Imagine fixing the tax code to be simple. Hundreds of thousands of accountants could now go do productive work. 100+million people could skip hours of work every year. The GDP would increase, the nation as a whole would do better skipping all that wasted time.
Nah, keeping bullshit jobs is useful to the wealthy. It's useful to scare people shirtless so they beg you to take their money and information to process and send to the government. Who would've thought that only maximising profit and not the quality of life could lead to such a thing?? /s
Improving the tax fillings system has nothing to do with the tax code. The tax code is actually quite simple, what makes it complex are the credits, and deductions added it.
@@TheModeler99 so basically what you are implying is that there is no reason for common people to be filing their taxes and only people with high net worth should do this thing if the government is going file everyone’s taxes since you can’t exactly pay too much tax if you count the time taken to do these taxes with actual value
@@hockychen7228 basically, yes. Only if you have multiple sources of income that have tax credits and such should you really have to manually file taxes. Having the government file taxes for you would be the best solution for 60-70% of the populace who wouldn't take advantage of those things anyways. And they can do it. Literally now.
@@pizzabuff Why in the world does some Americans that doesn’t have that reason argue that it is better for government to not file their taxes??? I’m from SE Asia and I have reasons to file my own taxes but I still cannot fathom what US does.
The article I saw said it would only be for some people, but I guess that makes sense. Maybe they’ll limit it to individual or joint taxes but not small business. I hope it’s widely available to a lot of people. It’s ridiculous the way our tax system works.
It will probably be for employees. When I was an employee I never paid for tax prep anyway and it was always incredibly easy. Why? Because the company you work for hires accountants that do all the work and all you have to do is put the numbers they gave you into a form, add your deductions or whatever, and it's done. But when you own any kind of business suddenly it's extremely complicated. Business income, monthly or quarterly estimated tax payments, payroll to self from business, tax withholding, use of vehicles, business use of office, business use of vehicle, property depreciation, etc etc. I doubt the IRS will every help businesses, the trend has been to make it harder every year.
This is true in the US, too. If you're not running a business, it's literally 1 paper (form 1040), fill it out with what's on your w2, add your bank info, mail it in to the irs and they'll deposit it in a few weeks. If you run a business, it's 2 more pieces of paper.
@@parker9012 I've seen only one tax form from the us. I believe it's called w8. It was filled with questions. All we have to go in Sweden in send and sms and it's done.
@jamesgorth ahhhh, that makes sense w-8 is for us citizens living overseas, that's why I've never heard of it. But if you're living in the US it's just a 1 page deal. Yes, it's covered in deduction questions, but there relatively easy and usually 0. Like "if you are a teacher, how much did you spend on materials for your students " or "how much did you spend installing solar panels". Because the government will pay you back for things it wants to encourage people to do. I assume in Sweden you have more of a flat tax, where those kinds of things aren't deductible?
Its a step in the right direction. God knows the lobbyists would never allow it to go to how it should be, but if we have to file ourselves, I appreciate the gesture
No, thanks. What they don't tell you is that if the IRS makes a mistake, you still have to pay the penalties. Basically, the government is incentivizing itself to screw up even more than they already do.
Actually Turbotax already had an advantage that they gave out for some reason. As of the 2021 tax filing season, the two most used tax-filing software programs (TurboTax and H&R Block) no longer participate in the Free File program. With the two largest members of the Free File Alliance ending their participation in the Free File Program, there have been renewed calls for the IRS to develop and offer its own free tax-filing software to taxpayers. As long Free File existed,government was not allowed to create return-free filing or any free filing systems at all. (yes tax industry had negotatitated such an amazing deal for tax industry) I wonder why they stopped it?
When we hire someone to do our taxes, we are also paying them to identify what tax credits we’re eligible for. As a senior, retiree, military, disabled, this knowledge has saved us thousands!
In Norway, every year, I log into our version of IRS's webpage, glance a little at what they think I should pay in tax and then approve. It takes about two minutes. This year I did my taxes while waiting for the bus, because someone else at the busstop told their friends that the web portal had opened for this years filings. If this is what's in your future in the US, I can assure you that you'll love it.
Questions to the IRS are answered correctly only about half the time. Would you trust them to do yours? Especially as they make beaucoup bucks by getting it wrong? Overpay and they will never find it, or underpay then find it then owe interest on the debt to the IRS.
@@leagueleaders They hardly know everything. The one time that my father was audited he proved that the IRS owed him a fair amount, and oddly they never tried auditing him again.
In the Netherlands we used to have to fill in a complete book worth of information every year, then the government digitalised and now everything is pre-filled in and you just have to check it and cinfirm it, completely free. It's possible and it works.
I had a coworker from Denmark and she said that in Denmark every citizen has a government mailbox connected with their government ID which is where all their official government correspondence, since birth, is sent to and from. This includes your annual tax bill. The government processes your taxes for you based on what they have. Then they send you the filing form, you make any corrections, and provide the paperwork to back it up. Then you submit the form, pay the bill if necessary, and you're done. This would definitely be more expensive at the federal level, and freak the sovereign citizens people out, but man would it be more efficient and more accurate!
They know how much we owe and we have to figure it out, if we are wrong we might go to jail. Why don't they just set up a system that just sends us the bill so we can pay it?
*Why does everyone subscribe to this idea that they know about every financial decision you've made in the past year? By allowing people to file their own taxes, they end up paying much less than whatever the default is. Unless you're not withholding any money from your paycheck, there's a chance that the government owes you money, i.e. tax refund.*
Companies bribed.. sorry, companies LOBBIED the government to make a system where doing taxes would be so hard that people would turn to them for their services
Think of turbo tax! Think of all the companies who does the tax for you and lobbies the government to make sure doing taxes are as confusing af so that you will pay them to do it for you! They will go out of business and thats bad for them...
Paying an extraordinary amount more money for a program that rarely works? Especially when there are much better options. Got to hand it to you, making taxes more complicated is probably the best thing joe biden has done 😢
Not necessarily. The real reason is that TurboTax and others have been stuffing cash into the pockets of the congress with aggressive lobbying against this sort of thing.
So what you’re trying to say is you have no idea what you’re talking about. You have no idea how your government is run. So you read wacky conspiracy theories on the Internet without even bothering to check them. Every penny the IRS collects into the United States general fund. The IRS is not allowed to spend any of the money it collects. I’m not even sure what fees you think they do collect
also Turbo tax and others had this program called free file alliance which had following deal attached to it: As long it exists, Government is not allowed to create return-free filing or any free tax return systems as long free file exists. BUT as of 2021 tax season TurboTax and H&R Block (the biggest players for free file alliance) are no longer participating in it. @@guyman1570
Im an American expact living in France. It took me a couple days to do our US taxes through TurboTax cus I was filing as an expact for the first time. And cost nearly $300. Our french taxes were done in 10 minutes. It was so quick and simple we scheduled a meeting with the tax office to make sure we didnit right. Yes we, did.
I have a degree in math and finance, and have used tubro tax and tax act FOR FREE for the last 10 years *easily*. I have no idea why people pay for basic W2 prep service. And yet, this is why we empower the IRS! We should support them because thats how we fund public prioroties!
Or here's a mad concept... don't make citizens file their own taxes when the government knows exactly how much it's going to come out to, then punish people that get it wrong. Or at least make it a bigger part of the curriculum in school so people can get out into society and know how to function.
The IRS itself isn’t responsible for the messed up tax laws in the US. And on its own the IRS is honestly one of the most necessary and effective agencies that our government has. they would absolutely provide easier filing options if they could, so I hope to see them succeed.
I used to do tech-support for Intuit through a third-party. (Have to clarify that I was not employed directly by them for legal reasons.) The number one call for Turbo Tax was “How do I do the free one???” Sometime in the last few years they made it the default option though, so that’s nice.
Damn. In my country, this is done for you for free by default... One of the mamy perks of having a strong governemnt, in addition to free healthcare and stuff
In Finland we have what many have said already, government provides us with a document and we fact check it, but the online version (free also) includes section for all tax reductions that could apply to your current situation. Me for example, I get reduced tax due to working remotely from home most of the time, so it takes me 3 clicks to add that to my tax form. Same with land ownership, just 3 clicks, do I have any, where is it and how large an area. With stocks my bank provides me with all necessary documentation and declarations for free which I can attach to the online tax form. Super easy.
In the 1990's I could file my W-2 if I had no other complications over the telephone with a touch-tone pad. Took about 5 minutes with a code I got from the IRS on my tax bill. The Tax Lobby petitioned to have them do away with that so we'd have to use them. Now it seems we're going back to the simpler version, which I love.
My dad worked in the IRS for decades. They were working on a free filling system in the CLINTON administration, and lobbyists convinced the W admin to pause it. We've always been able to file directly on paper, if you're not stupid wealthy you're paying huge fees for fifth grade math homework.
Also the fact that we're responsible for adding up our own tax burden is another dumb lobbyist idea that benefit rich people. The IRS has the numbers already but you can't scan the system if the system is allowed to check the records before you play with them.
We have that in Australia, if you just have a normal job you log into the government website, it's pre filled, so you just make sure it looks right and click submit.
As a Canadian I find it funny the government needs to “invent a prototype” considering we’ve been doing exactly this for at least 5 years. All we Canadians have to do is authenticate 5 little boxes and it’s done. My mother would go through my 2 siblings, hers, my dad’s, and grandfather’s in the span of an hour and a half. That’s including the time it would take for the government to send the confirmation text, see the text, and give the code to her. So if she could set it up to be sent directly to her it’s go by twice as fast.
In Latvia, the government does this by it self and once a year in March you can check if everything was done right and in most cases you have slightly overpaid and you can get the money back so depending on your employers accuracy you get a none, small or decent amount of money basically out of nowhere in March
AARP will do it for real free if you're low income! I've been using them for years. Also, check out your local library- a lot of them have free tax help and/or resources to do your taxes.
In Poland if you're not an enterpreneur you literally do not have to do anything. The tax return is generated automatically and if you do not do anything until April 30th, the return will be simply filed automatically and that's it.
“Why is filing taxes so hard?” Because we made it that way, and now it’s super profitable for people and simplifying it would completely remove their stream of revenue.
Fun fact: a number of countries, such as New Zealand and Sweden, are now set up in such a way that most of the residents don't have to file taxes at all. The company I work for was a big part of that and they are mostly US based so we are working on it!
in the UK this is so easy. you don't need to file taxes unless your self employed. they take it direct from your wage and if you overpay they give it you back. it's called payE
Australia already does this, each week the government takes a portion of your wages and then at the end of the year you have usually overpaid so you get money back.
People complain about doing taxes, but TurboTax and other businesses are preventing policy’s that would basically just make us sign our taxes so they can stay in business.
Tons of places already do this! Taxes should never have been hard. Or expensive! I did pay a couple hundred to H&R Block to do taxes for social security back pay check. Doing it myself with tax programs would have cost close to $10,000 because I didn't know how to spread the pay out over the two years prior that I should have gotten disability. Since the government allows this, and H&R Block knows how to do this, I only owed around $1,000. Totally worth paying someone that time!
Canada lags behind most of the world in terms of taxes, but it's still way easier than America. I file my taxes by hand each year, and it takes me an hour or so.
Fun Fact you won't see in the adverts... The IRS will hold you liable for any and all errors even if those errors are the result of using government resources including [and not limited to] human or software assets.
Meanwhile in the Netherlands filing taxes is pretty much like installing a Windows program. Just click next a few times, check if stuff is still correct (which it usually is), pay up and you're done.
I work in finance for tax reporting. All of the tax documents that we send to you we send to both the irs and your states. This is all outlined in publication 1220.
Love how they don't mention that taxes are hard unnecessarily because of lobbying.
And not only Intuit and H&R Block lobbying, either.
Taxpayers' "advocates" like Howard Jarvis and Grover Norquist have allied themselves with Intuit etc in their efforts to keep taxes complicated and painful.
And they don't even lie about it. Norquist testifies in front of Congress saying stuff like, "people wouldn't mind taxes as much if you made the process easier... And that's bad."
Improving the tax fillings system has nothing to do with the tax code. The tax code is actually quite simple, what makes it complex are the credits, and deductions added it. The average salary employee just has to know their tax bracket to calculate their taxes.
Look at all the corporation-backed politicians who got all upset about this, lol. Oh noes, their campaign donors are going to make less money off of people filing taxes
That's why lobbyists are busy trying to fault this new improvement, because they want to keep it complicated.
@@G1NZOU That makes no sense. Nothing about this makes anything easier. It literally only works for those who already only file the basic 1040.
In England, people just have to check if the government has all the info is correct, and sign it to confirm.
Exactly as it should be. I don't know why we tolerate our tax system. Our government also has all the information, so demanding citizens all keep their own records and meticulous sort through them each year is idiotic.
In the Netherlands as well, usually takes me 5 min. Because the tax is already withhold from your monthly paycheck I usually get money back. Mind that you can chose not to do that, but well doing taxes is more fun when it takes you 5 min and you get a few hundreds or even thousands back. If you dont give permission for the monthly thing paid by the employer I think you have to fill in yourself and you will be paying thousands by the end of the year. Guess some people do that for privacy reasons or it gives them a sense of control, however since you still need to pay and give the info at the end of the year I cant really see how that argument works.
@@swamidude2214 exactly how it works here in Portugal too, we just check if everything is correct, add some few things, then we just get rained on with aome couple thousands
@@pauld.b7129because turbotax lobby to keep it that way you can thank citizens united for that
Man in hecking Russia even self employed have to click 3 buttons in mobile app and are free to go
Trying to find the free version is like trying to find a needle in a haystack which just might not be in there
Wasn’t hard for me.
@@Xio189 fr people act like its invisible or something. Just actually look at what youre clicking on 🙄
It’s incredibly easy wdym. Just WaPo trying to credit something to Biden that already exists
Even worse, it's like trying to find hay in a needle stack which just might not be in there.
What are you on about. I've only had to pay when I had to declare income from my stock plan, only because it was different forms from the EZ form.
Finding the list of free E-file sites provided by the IRS was one of the best decisions of my adult life.
@@goodintentions8106go to the irs website for free file websites, it depends on your state so there’s no single go to
@@goodintentions8106for real man 😭
Send it dawg
Send please 🙏
op give it here
Did you guys know that companies like turbo tax and H&R Block have repeteadly lobbied the US government to ensure the system stays complex and hard so people keep using their service? But remember, your vote is treasured and valued in this country 🙂
@cawndorWell.... lobbying is just trying to influence political decicions. Like environmental organization giving estimate on policy impact on environment. Ideally politicians shouldn't benefit from it other than being able to make better decicions. If politicians are given something in return for listening to lobbyists that should be just called legalized bribery. Unless it's not legal in which case it should be just... bribery.
*mean while Dutch tax agency*
“Alright so we made the calculations already just make sure the information we have is correct sign here, here and here.”
I love that every year logging into the stupid government website to quickly scroll through all the meaningless letters and numbers and just click accept at the bottom.
@@RYTG This just sounds *magical*
@@RYTGit’s like a doctors appointment where you say “no” to everything bad
@@jorikrouwenhorst7220 it really is that simple.
I'm going to bet the Dutch government doesn't care about some forms of earned income. for example if you sell a used car on Facebook marketplace for cash. the government doesn't know how much you sold it for unless you tell them. the money from that sale is taxable income. So the Dutch government probably doesn't worry about that and is hoping most people are honest
Or the irs could just tell you how much you owe them
No, they won't, ever.
The idea is to instil fear in people to let the IRS know more than they really do. As long as you file the information they already know, basically, your main job, and anything online still get reported.
As long as you pay those taxes, your good, but they also want you to report on stuff they don't know about, sales made with cash that isn't recorded.
the funny thing is, the government already knows everything they need to know, its just that these filing companies have lobbied it for these forms they send to be as confusing as possible to get people to subscribe to their services
Isn't that what Biden is looking into?
They don't know what you owe. That's because congress keeps carving out exemptions. Government doesn't track everything in your life and in some situations where they do, they are prevented by law from sharing that information with other agencies.
But lets assume you are married and get a divorce. What you will owe will change when your spouse leaves you. Suppose you donated 5k to a food bank, now you have a deduction thst would lower your taxes.
Filing actually reports this stuff.
The IRS or CRA dont know what tou owe until everything is compiled. They have all your employment income and investment income. However The IRS is not an omnipresent being that knows what you spent on medical, rent, or made from self-employment income. The ideal system would be you simply submit the deductions your claiming and nothing else. The so called “post card” method. With the level of automation in place your basically already there we just have this relic of a tax prep industry to phase out slowly without destroying potentially a million well paying jobs
but, but, won't anyone think about Intuit shareholders?! Meanwhile, Europe has had automatic "Ready Return" tax filing since 1999. The IRS can actually do 95% of the populations' taxes for us with one press of a keystroke...
so we americans are behind and have been for decades now?
figures
Yeah it's called lobbyist being our "friends"
@@puff7306 we arent bwhind per se, more that it keeps jobs in existamce that otherwise dont need to be. Unless you going to write a lot of stuff off, the foverment already knows how much you owe them or they owe you. And they have been knowing for forever.
@@outlaw451 "keeps jobs in existence" no, just no. Doing pointless jobs so that a company can say they're bringing x amount of jobs into the country is so SO debunkable. Not to mention that so many of the jobs for these companies are outsourced to other countries anyways.
So basically the whole thing is a moot point...
@@outlaw451 If a job is completely pointless and only exists to make people’s lives more difficult because it creates said job it should not exist
It's so kind of JD Vance to help us with our taxes!
In Taiwan you just go in your local National Taxation office with your ID. They input your info in the computer where your work history comes up and tell you if you owe anything. The whole process takes about 15 minutes or less and it's free. And if you have any write offs or things to declare , the process might take you an extra 10 minutes or so and it's still free
No, Turbo Tax suspended their free version, it was stated pretty clearly this season. It is also not listed in the government's list of free providers anymore.
Intuit (owners of Turbo Tax) bought Credit Karma, so now Credit Karma's tax feature is part of Cash App. It's so stupid.
There's still other free options.
wait wait wait... is that why the biden is capable of doing this? is free file alliance finally down? i thought tax business like turbotax had negototitated a deal where federal government cannot give return free filing or any free tax filing as long free file alliance exists.
Most are only free for people who are low income with uncomplicated taxes too. Now the problem with that is college adds a fair amount of complexity and the low income is very very low in most cases. Like under 20,000 a year
@@riffpophop yeah, but the falsehood about the TurboTax free option was that they kept marketing it like it was sufficient for almost everyone when the actual amount of people who could complete their taxes with it was significantly smaller. Anyways, the free option has since been restored for a while now, and they market it as effective for 37% of people who file in the US.
Me using tax heaven 3000:
I don't have such problems
I don’t file my taxes 😎 don’t tell the irs 🤫
I alnost paid in way to much doing my taxes on my own but when i wanted a second opinion and went to a professional i actully received a refund.
Dude, I use Turbo tax and "I don't have such problems". I don't understand why so many people have such a heavy issue with them, either my taxes are simple enough to use their free shit, or they aren't and I did them myself, which, while more annoying, was mostly due to quarterly taxes and generally high taxation rates, not with how to file.
@@Bat0541 TurboTax costs substantially more for different people. for example, if youre a musician and do contract work, you might have to pay hundreds more to use their service. the point is that TurboTax was supposed to be free, but it isnt because of intense lobbying
@@ratofthecity6351 that and the fact every year since covid they've botched some basic thing.
2020 taxes they botched the whole deal with the stimulus checks, causing people to think they only owe a couple hundred when they owe thousands, or are due a refund and get nothing
2021 they botched pre-establishing payment plans by giving the taxpayers asking for it estimated tax vouchers for 2022, so they end up not actually paying on 2021 and incurring avoidable penalty/interest.
2022 taxes? They signed so many people up for an auto draft of their entire liability on tax day and didn't tell them, so they suddenly have $1-2000 pulled from their account when they intended to pay over time, or worse, cause a double payment when the taxpayer tries to pay manually, therefore leaving them with bank fees due to the cancelled payment/overdraft and bad check penalties from the IRS.
turbotax can go suck a fat one. They've pissed me off about all this way too much. And it's cause I work in that field and see so much of their screwups
Laughs in Australian, our tax office does basically the whole return for you.
Yeah, we have masted the art of slipstreaming people to defraud Centrelink with the ATO.
In all seriousness though, the ATO is pretty good at getting that done quickly and easily.
*And you end up paying more in taxes than what you actually owe?*
@@CaptainAlliance If at the end of the financial year you have paid more taxes than what you owe, then it automatically calculates what it owes you back and you can just click an ok button for it to be sent back to you.
@@CaptainAlliance No, for 80% of people it's very straightforward. the rest will like either do it themselves or get their accountant to do it.
Yup. Same in SA. Get a text informing you the return has been completed. You can then review (and dispute if required) and if all is well off it goes.
Still can't believe how far behind the US is on areas like digitalized taxes. Other countries have had it for YEARS.
You see, you, sir are not a true believer in the FREE MARKET!
A lot of things in the US (health care, gun laws, transportation, infrastructure) are behind due to lobbying.
This has actually been put in effect. Next year 2025 you will be able to file taxes for free
Thanks Biden. doesn't have the same ring to it as "thanks Obama" but free filing is dope
My mother hasn't lived in the country for like 30 years, she always owes the IRS nothing, and still tax season is a really stressful time that causes her to be at her computer for days grumbling about it (she files her own taxes, partly because there's not a lot of resources for her specific situation and partly because she already knows how to do this and that she won't have to pay the IRS so why pay an accountant?)
Edit: she has repeatedly said she'll probably renounce her citizenship at some point just so she won't have to do taxes
W mom
That’s when you know the tax code is FUBAR.
Someone is willing to renounce their citizenship to avoid filing.
Props to your mom for putting up with it for so long.
As understandable as her sentiment is, she might want to keep her us citizenship.
Just stop paying them if she doesn't come back they can't get her
I should renounce my citizenship
They could’ve done this for such a long time, but they didn’t do this because TurboTax and other companies were practically dumping cash into the IRS pockets to basically prevent this
Edit I screwed this up and said IRS instead of Congress sorry
Not true, the IRS was damn near broke.
Sounds about right
YUUUUUP
Dumping cash into **congresspeople's** pockers
Lol wrong. My goodness you people are dumb.
You should not even have to file taxes the irs already has all the information in most other countries it is automatic
yeah, but then I wouldn't be able to game the system.
Poor people pay taxes
actualy the irs has no clue how much you owe it.
Do you really think that they would arrange your taxes so that you make the highest possible deductions? You really believe that your taxes will be minimized by the “Service”?
Technically the IRS doesn't know how much you owe them. They have a vauge upper and lower limit figured out, but unless you're being audited they don't have an exact number.
You do really good public service, announcements, and little videos on relevant issues. Thank you I’ve been enjoying them.
TurboTax and other systems already have free versions but it’s good to see the IRS making their own direct system
Imagine fixing the tax code to be simple. Hundreds of thousands of accountants could now go do productive work. 100+million people could skip hours of work every year. The GDP would increase, the nation as a whole would do better skipping all that wasted time.
Nah, keeping bullshit jobs is useful to the wealthy. It's useful to scare people shirtless so they beg you to take their money and information to process and send to the government. Who would've thought that only maximising profit and not the quality of life could lead to such a thing?? /s
Improving the tax fillings system has nothing to do with the tax code. The tax code is actually quite simple, what makes it complex are the credits, and deductions added it.
@@TheModeler99 so basically what you are implying is that there is no reason for common people to be filing their taxes and only people with high net worth should do this thing if the government is going file everyone’s taxes since you can’t exactly pay too much tax if you count the time taken to do these taxes with actual value
@@hockychen7228 basically, yes. Only if you have multiple sources of income that have tax credits and such should you really have to manually file taxes. Having the government file taxes for you would be the best solution for 60-70% of the populace who wouldn't take advantage of those things anyways. And they can do it. Literally now.
@@pizzabuff Why in the world does some Americans that doesn’t have that reason argue that it is better for government to not file their taxes??? I’m from SE Asia and I have reasons to file my own taxes but I still cannot fathom what US does.
The article I saw said it would only be for some people, but I guess that makes sense. Maybe they’ll limit it to individual or joint taxes but not small business.
I hope it’s widely available to a lot of people. It’s ridiculous the way our tax system works.
Simple returns of low income people first. Scale up complexity and volume each year
@@FoxInTheBasement Thank you!
It will probably be for employees. When I was an employee I never paid for tax prep anyway and it was always incredibly easy. Why? Because the company you work for hires accountants that do all the work and all you have to do is put the numbers they gave you into a form, add your deductions or whatever, and it's done.
But when you own any kind of business suddenly it's extremely complicated. Business income, monthly or quarterly estimated tax payments, payroll to self from business, tax withholding, use of vehicles, business use of office, business use of vehicle, property depreciation, etc etc. I doubt the IRS will every help businesses, the trend has been to make it harder every year.
They will more than likely eventually make it open to the public after testing the testing period
What’s more ridiculous is all the money they steal from you for bullshit that you would never willing pay for in the first place
In Sweden you don't need any help with taxes, unless you've got a company.
This is true in the US, too. If you're not running a business, it's literally 1 paper (form 1040), fill it out with what's on your w2, add your bank info, mail it in to the irs and they'll deposit it in a few weeks.
If you run a business, it's 2 more pieces of paper.
@@parker9012 I've seen only one tax form from the us. I believe it's called w8. It was filled with questions.
All we have to go in Sweden in send and sms and it's done.
@jamesgorth ahhhh, that makes sense w-8 is for us citizens living overseas, that's why I've never heard of it. But if you're living in the US it's just a 1 page deal. Yes, it's covered in deduction questions, but there relatively easy and usually 0. Like "if you are a teacher, how much did you spend on materials for your students " or "how much did you spend installing solar panels". Because the government will pay you back for things it wants to encourage people to do.
I assume in Sweden you have more of a flat tax, where those kinds of things aren't deductible?
@@parker9012 no we have deductables. They are usually precalculated.
Same in the uk
meanwhile in Denmark, that free electronic tax filing system has functioned for two decades.
Dude, there's been programs for that for years. Turning 18, broke, and being on my own made me figure that shit out quick
In school they dont teach you how to do taxes, that shit is so hard
In civics we did this and even then some idiots didn’t pay attention but every school is different though
because 1, you wouldn't understand and 2, you wouldn't listen
It's illegal for schools to teach it.
@@gasknighthow are they trying to make us understand calculus but not something far more important
Yeah, could've been useful to learn reading comprehension and basic arithmetic instead of ... you know, reading comprehension and basic arithmetic.
Americans be like “LAND OF THE FREE” and then pay for tax calculations
Libre, not gratis.
@@donanderson3653 Not libre either, buddy.
Free enkugh to charge someone to do it
Since when has America been the land of the free?
Hasn't been the case at any point in my lifetime.
@@springerworks002 you haven't been anywhere else in the world then.
Its a step in the right direction. God knows the lobbyists would never allow it to go to how it should be, but if we have to file ourselves, I appreciate the gesture
No, thanks.
What they don't tell you is that if the IRS makes a mistake, you still have to pay the penalties. Basically, the government is incentivizing itself to screw up even more than they already do.
@@ghost307 ok fed
Actually Turbotax already had an advantage that they gave out for some reason. As of the 2021 tax filing season, the two most used tax-filing software programs (TurboTax and H&R Block) no longer participate in the Free File program. With the two largest members of the Free File Alliance ending their participation in the Free File Program, there have been renewed calls for the IRS to develop and offer its own free tax-filing software to taxpayers.
As long Free File existed,government was not allowed to create return-free filing or any free filing systems at all. (yes tax industry had negotatitated such an amazing deal for tax industry) I wonder why they stopped it?
@@ghost307ok fed
@@ghost307 I found the H&R Block plant.
When we hire someone to do our taxes, we are also paying them to identify what tax credits we’re eligible for. As a senior, retiree, military, disabled, this knowledge has saved us thousands!
as a software developer, i hear 15$ million and instantly know there’s NO NEED FOR THAT MUCH MONEY TO BE SPENT
In Norway, every year, I log into our version of IRS's webpage, glance a little at what they think I should pay in tax and then approve.
It takes about two minutes.
This year I did my taxes while waiting for the bus, because someone else at the busstop told their friends that the web portal had opened for this years filings.
If this is what's in your future in the US, I can assure you that you'll love it.
What are the average tax rates like in Norway?
@@BillyBobBeauBenson
I think it's 31% if you have the average salary and no deductibles.
That's actual pretty cool. And I've never had a problem finding the free version of TurboTax 😅
Or the irs could just tell us what we owe every year. The US is the only country in the world that makes the taxpayers do their own taxes.
no crap they know everything anyways just say what we owe or what we get and let us get on with our lives!
@LeagueLeaders It is really stupid how our individual income tax system is set up. 😒
Why is making people pay for being useful to society, an acceptable solution?
Questions to the IRS are answered correctly only about half the time. Would you trust them to do yours? Especially as they make beaucoup bucks by getting it wrong? Overpay and they will never find it, or underpay then find it then owe interest on the debt to the IRS.
@@leagueleaders They hardly know everything. The one time that my father was audited he proved that the IRS owed him a fair amount, and oddly they never tried auditing him again.
Anime game on the internet: You guys are getting paid?
In the Netherlands we used to have to fill in a complete book worth of information every year, then the government digitalised and now everything is pre-filled in and you just have to check it and cinfirm it, completely free.
It's possible and it works.
When I lived in england, doing my taxes was simply filling out a form in my managers office declaring I had no other income.
Also it will only work for Federal taxes, you still have to rely on stuff like Turbo Tax for state taxes.
There are free options for state taxes. There is no reason to go with turbo tax anyway, since they are the reason for this mess in the first place.
In Ohio you can file directly through the state’s website :) I’d assume some other states have similar systems
Laughs in Texas
Even if you use the IRS site for free federal you will have to pay for filing state.
or go to a state without that garbage
I got a check in the mail, because my normally useless AG got the state in on the class action suit for Turbo Tax charging
Same!
I bet it's going to be the best software ever with zero bugs.
I had a coworker from Denmark and she said that in Denmark every citizen has a government mailbox connected with their government ID which is where all their official government correspondence, since birth, is sent to and from.
This includes your annual tax bill.
The government processes your taxes for you based on what they have. Then they send you the filing form, you make any corrections, and provide the paperwork to back it up. Then you submit the form, pay the bill if necessary, and you're done.
This would definitely be more expensive at the federal level, and freak the sovereign citizens people out, but man would it be more efficient and more accurate!
They know how much we owe and we have to figure it out, if we are wrong we might go to jail. Why don't they just set up a system that just sends us the bill so we can pay it?
Yep, the jails are just full to bursting with average American citizens who made an error on their taxes...
*Why does everyone subscribe to this idea that they know about every financial decision you've made in the past year? By allowing people to file their own taxes, they end up paying much less than whatever the default is. Unless you're not withholding any money from your paycheck, there's a chance that the government owes you money, i.e. tax refund.*
Companies bribed.. sorry, companies LOBBIED the government to make a system where doing taxes would be so hard that people would turn to them for their services
Think of turbo tax! Think of all the companies who does the tax for you and lobbies the government to make sure doing taxes are as confusing af so that you will pay them to do it for you! They will go out of business and thats bad for them...
Because Turbotax bribed Republicans to enforce the convoluted system we have today.
The best thing Biden has done in his presidency
Paying an extraordinary amount more money for a program that rarely works? Especially when there are much better options.
Got to hand it to you, making taxes more complicated is probably the best thing joe biden has done 😢
I doubt the IRS will actually go through with it. A sizeable portion of IRS operations budget is paid by fees.
Listen, we can let Biden have this small W, he doesn't get many, you know, and grandpa could use a gold star 😂
Not necessarily. The real reason is that TurboTax and others have been stuffing cash into the pockets of the congress with aggressive lobbying against this sort of thing.
So what you’re trying to say is you have no idea what you’re talking about. You have no idea how your government is run. So you read wacky conspiracy theories on the Internet without even bothering to check them.
Every penny the IRS collects into the United States general fund. The IRS is not allowed to spend any of the money it collects.
I’m not even sure what fees you think they do collect
also Turbo tax and others had this program called free file alliance which had following deal attached to it: As long it exists, Government is not allowed to create return-free filing or any free tax return systems as long free file exists. BUT as of 2021 tax season TurboTax and H&R Block (the biggest players for free file alliance) are no longer participating in it. @@guyman1570
"15 million dollars for the IRS to LOOK INTO creating a direct filing program"
I used Cash App to file my taxes this year and it was great! Double checked with turbo tax and got the same refund but it was completely free.
15 million for a math software?
Biden's impersonation is soo accurate
Bro that biden impression was on point
Im an American expact living in France. It took me a couple days to do our US taxes through TurboTax cus I was filing as an expact for the first time. And cost nearly $300.
Our french taxes were done in 10 minutes. It was so quick and simple we scheduled a meeting with the tax office to make sure we didnit right. Yes we, did.
I have a degree in math and finance, and have used tubro tax and tax act FOR FREE for the last 10 years *easily*. I have no idea why people pay for basic W2 prep service.
And yet, this is why we empower the IRS! We should support them because thats how we fund public prioroties!
Better yet abolish the IRS
Or here's a mad concept... don't make citizens file their own taxes when the government knows exactly how much it's going to come out to, then punish people that get it wrong. Or at least make it a bigger part of the curriculum in school so people can get out into society and know how to function.
This system isnt terrible. Having it be free is the right move and going through your taxes is important for future planning
The IRS itself isn’t responsible for the messed up tax laws in the US. And on its own the IRS is honestly one of the most necessary and effective agencies that our government has. they would absolutely provide easier filing options if they could, so I hope to see them succeed.
I used to do tech-support for Intuit through a third-party. (Have to clarify that I was not employed directly by them for legal reasons.) The number one call for Turbo Tax was “How do I do the free one???” Sometime in the last few years they made it the default option though, so that’s nice.
Never thought I'd say this, but i really respect this contributor to the Washington Post. His information is verified, and the sketches are engaging.
Damn. In my country, this is done for you for free by default... One of the mamy perks of having a strong governemnt, in addition to free healthcare and stuff
I love how be just says OK in the end😂. "Shut up and take my money. "
Wait until you hear that Norway has had this for free for a long time already. (Well that’s probably no surprise considering our 45% tax rate)
remember: it’s not bribery in the US, it’s ‘lobbying to protect interests’
In Finland we have what many have said already, government provides us with a document and we fact check it, but the online version (free also) includes section for all tax reductions that could apply to your current situation.
Me for example, I get reduced tax due to working remotely from home most of the time, so it takes me 3 clicks to add that to my tax form. Same with land ownership, just 3 clicks, do I have any, where is it and how large an area.
With stocks my bank provides me with all necessary documentation and declarations for free which I can attach to the online tax form.
Super easy.
In the 1990's I could file my W-2 if I had no other complications over the telephone with a touch-tone pad. Took about 5 minutes with a code I got from the IRS on my tax bill. The Tax Lobby petitioned to have them do away with that so we'd have to use them. Now it seems we're going back to the simpler version, which I love.
somebody really convinced people it would take a budget of $15000000 to do that shit.
H&R has the best free online filing service I have used.
My dad worked in the IRS for decades. They were working on a free filling system in the CLINTON administration, and lobbyists convinced the W admin to pause it.
We've always been able to file directly on paper, if you're not stupid wealthy you're paying huge fees for fifth grade math homework.
Also the fact that we're responsible for adding up our own tax burden is another dumb lobbyist idea that benefit rich people. The IRS has the numbers already but you can't scan the system if the system is allowed to check the records before you play with them.
Meanwhile the IRS is stockpiling ammunition and guns...
We have that in Australia, if you just have a normal job you log into the government website, it's pre filled, so you just make sure it looks right and click submit.
As a Canadian I find it funny the government needs to “invent a prototype” considering we’ve been doing exactly this for at least 5 years. All we Canadians have to do is authenticate 5 little boxes and it’s done.
My mother would go through my 2 siblings, hers, my dad’s, and grandfather’s in the span of an hour and a half. That’s including the time it would take for the government to send the confirmation text, see the text, and give the code to her. So if she could set it up to be sent directly to her it’s go by twice as fast.
In Latvia, the government does this by it self and once a year in March you can check if everything was done right and in most cases you have slightly overpaid and you can get the money back so depending on your employers accuracy you get a none, small or decent amount of money basically out of nowhere in March
IRS redemption arc
In Egypt, they just take the taxes away when you receive your paycheck
As with many in these comments, Australia's system is:
"Here's the information we have, we miss anything? No? Ok."
AARP will do it for real free if you're low income! I've been using them for years. Also, check out your local library- a lot of them have free tax help and/or resources to do your taxes.
And in other countries they just send you a bill. America is still marathons behind other countries.
In Poland if you're not an enterpreneur you literally do not have to do anything. The tax return is generated automatically and if you do not do anything until April 30th, the return will be simply filed automatically and that's it.
“Why is filing taxes so hard?”
Because we made it that way, and now it’s super profitable for people and simplifying it would completely remove their stream of revenue.
I love creating a solution to a problem we intentionally created to create a solution for
We've had this is Australia for a very long time now. Surprised to see people paying to do their taxes
Fun fact: a number of countries, such as New Zealand and Sweden, are now set up in such a way that most of the residents don't have to file taxes at all.
The company I work for was a big part of that and they are mostly US based so we are working on it!
in the UK this is so easy. you don't need to file taxes unless your self employed. they take it direct from your wage and if you overpay they give it you back. it's called payE
Free tax USA. Been my go to for yeeaaarrrss. They have all the forms and really helpful guides.
The irs program is free and it’s actually good
I am cautiously optimistic about this development.
Australia already does this, each week the government takes a portion of your wages and then at the end of the year you have usually overpaid so you get money back.
I cant wait to use the irs version.
People complain about doing taxes, but TurboTax and other businesses are preventing policy’s that would basically just make us sign our taxes so they can stay in business.
The reason it took so long definitely couldn't have been the 25 million in lobbying TurboTax's parent company spent since 2006.
and in 2021 Turbotax(along with hrblock) left thing that had legally prevented usa government from creating anything better.
Tons of places already do this! Taxes should never have been hard. Or expensive! I did pay a couple hundred to H&R Block to do taxes for social security back pay check.
Doing it myself with tax programs would have cost close to $10,000 because I didn't know how to spread the pay out over the two years prior that I should have gotten disability.
Since the government allows this, and H&R Block knows how to do this, I only owed around $1,000. Totally worth paying someone that time!
Canada lags behind most of the world in terms of taxes, but it's still way easier than America. I file my taxes by hand each year, and it takes me an hour or so.
Fun Fact you won't see in the adverts... The IRS will hold you liable for any and all errors even if those errors are the result of using government resources including [and not limited to] human or software assets.
Feeling blessed to be an Australian where I can do my taxes on my phone during a lunch break and than get 2 grand back in 3 weeks
Ours doesn’t take too long either, like half an hour for most people. It’s still tedious as hell
Wait y’all get 2K back?? How much do you make a year
Politicians on both sides have taken cash from turbo tax, H&R Block and their ilk to keep things needlessly complex up until now
The government needs to just mail us how much we owe
Me: Is this how much I owe?
IRS: WRONG! now you're coming to jail!
Meanwhile in the Netherlands filing taxes is pretty much like installing a Windows program. Just click next a few times, check if stuff is still correct (which it usually is), pay up and you're done.
I hate having to pay...been doing it already for over 10 years and would really appreciate that free IRS business. It's taking too long
Yeah... I trust the IRS so much. I guarantee there wouldn't be any problems with the IRS doing this.
I work in finance for tax reporting. All of the tax documents that we send to you we send to both the irs and your states. This is all outlined in publication 1220.
Thank you so much
Wow. The USA is only 50 years behind my countries beaurocracy... we need to improve ourselves.