4 ms·

Filing is always free. Online filing costs money, but you can always mail in a paper form. If everyone did that, the IRS would pretty quickly want to make sure

by imgabe 10y ago

Filing is always free. Online filing costs money, but you can always mail in a paper form. If everyone did that, the IRS would pretty quickly want to make sure people can file online easily and cheaply. Stop using HR Block and Turbo Tax. For most people, taxes are not very complicated. The IRS publishes detailed instructions that literally explain what every box means and what should go in it for every form. Just read it, fill it out, mail it in.

Azkar 10y ago
You underestimate how lazy and unmotivated most people are.
- briandear 10y ago
  You overestimate how easy IRS instructions are. A 1040EZ is easy, but anything beyond that and it becomes very complicated in a hurry.
- eli 10y ago
  You underestimate how much people's time is worth to them.
komali2 10y ago
But every time I do that my calculated return is far lower than the return I get using online tools.
jlarocco 10y ago
> Filing is always free. Online filing costs money, but you can always mail in a paper form. If everyone did that, the IRS would pretty quickly want to make sure people can file online easily and cheaply. Nobody at the IRS cares one way or the other. Until a few years ago that was the only way to file, and their machines handled the load just fine. If there's a lot of paper files, and it takes an extra week for somebody to get their return, it's not going to bother the IRS one bit.
euyyn 10y ago
Ain't nobody got time for that.
pnutjam 10y ago
I've been using https://www.freetax.com/ https://www.freetax.com/ for the last few years. It's free to efile state and federal, no gimmicks like the ones pushed on the IRS website. I actually did mine in HR block as well one year, they messed up the state portion badly, I would have been overpaid on my refund and had to pay it back.
dcherman 10y ago
The AMT calculation is tedious as hell. Considering that the yearly cost for H&R Block is something like 20$, it's well worth the money just to avoid needing to do that by hand, and that's not even taking into account all of the other time savings features of it. And the cost for the software itself is tax deductible as tax prep costs.
- burkaman 10y ago
  AMT only really affects people who make like $200,000+, right? It's a reasonable point, but I think it only applies to 5% or so of taxpayers.
  - dcherman 10y ago
    Nope! You'd be surprised who it might affect. Families with a few kids (lots of tax credits rather than deductions) that own their own home and have a decent salary could potentially owe the AMT. If you make more than the exemption amount for your category (between 40-85K or so depending on your situation and tax year), then you should be calculating the AMT to determine whether or not you owe. It affects more people than you might think, even if it just requires the calculation to occur to see if you owe it or not.

by imgabe 10y ago

Azkar 10y ago

You underestimate how lazy and unmotivated most people are.

briandear 10y ago
You overestimate how easy IRS instructions are. A 1040EZ is easy, but anything beyond that and it becomes very complicated in a hurry.
eli 10y ago
You underestimate how much people's time is worth to them.

komali2 10y ago

But every time I do that my calculated return is far lower than the return I get using online tools.

jlarocco 10y ago

> Filing is always free. Online filing costs money, but you can always mail in a paper form. If everyone did that, the IRS would pretty quickly want to make sure people can file online easily and cheaply. Nobody at the IRS cares one way or the other. Until a few years ago that was the only way to file, and their machines handled the load just fine. If there's a lot of paper files, and it takes an extra week for somebody to get their return, it's not going to bother the IRS one bit.

euyyn 10y ago

Ain't nobody got time for that.

pnutjam 10y ago

I've been using https://www.freetax.com/ https://www.freetax.com/ for the last few years. It's free to efile state and federal, no gimmicks like the ones pushed on the IRS website. I actually did mine in HR block as well one year, they messed up the state portion badly, I would have been overpaid on my refund and had to pay it back.

dcherman 10y ago

The AMT calculation is tedious as hell. Considering that the yearly cost for H&R Block is something like 20$, it's well worth the money just to avoid needing to do that by hand, and that's not even taking into account all of the other time savings features of it. And the cost for the software itself is tax deductible as tax prep costs.

burkaman 10y ago
AMT only really affects people who make like $200,000+, right? It's a reasonable point, but I think it only applies to 5% or so of taxpayers.
- dcherman 10y ago
  Nope! You'd be surprised who it might affect. Families with a few kids (lots of tax credits rather than deductions) that own their own home and have a decent salary could potentially owe the AMT. If you make more than the exemption amount for your category (between 40-85K or so depending on your situation and tax year), then you should be calculating the AMT to determine whether or not you owe. It affects more people than you might think, even if it just requires the calculation to occur to see if you owe it or not.