4 ms·

What about the free forms is painful? I have only ever filed via these forms - I've never used TurboTax, and my AGI exceeds the limits on the federal free file

What about the free forms is painful? I have only ever filed via these forms - I've never used TurboTax, and my AGI exceeds the limits on the federal free file software. To me, it's pretty simple: you read the instruction book and go through it line by line. If you have odd forms to complete, like paperwork for an HSA, a quick google search will set you in the right direction. People with more complicated tax returns will always need a professional's expertise. But for 90% of people who have one income source for one household, the paper forms are very intuitive. I think people think they are "painful" because they need to read and comprehend more.

keb_ 7y ago
I think they are "painful" because they are tedious and unnecessary assuming the government can already pre-fill the information. You also have to understand that many people may not have the same reading comprehension skills as you do.
maxerickson 7y ago
That's not what intuitive means. ('intuitive' is over used as a goal, but a form where you look up the instructions line by line in a separate book and where you occasionally have to search out how to fill out a subform is not intuitive at all.)
magashna 7y ago
Painful compared to other countries which send you "this is what we have on you" and you say "yep" and that's it.
iamwpj 7y ago
I'm with you. The instructions on how to fill out every form come with the form.
Gh0stRAT 7y ago
>What about the free forms is painful? The first time I used FreeFillableForms, it was also my first time doing taxes manually. Reading all the instructions and then going off and computing whether or not the AMT applies to me, researching whether I was eligible for this and that deduction, etc was very time consuming. I estimate it must have taken me over 12 hours which was definitely not worth my time financially, but I did it anyway as a matter of principle. THEN I ran into a nasty snag: I had put a "0" in a bunch of the fields that I'd decided didn't apply to me, but the IRS validation script expected those fields to be blank and repeatedly rejected my submissions with cryptic error messages about form validation errors. It takes at least a day to hear back after you submit, so it took me weeks after I was "done" with my taxes before I could figure out the problem and get all the fields changed from zeros to blanks that the IRS needed in order to actually accept my taxes. >I think people think they are "painful" because they need to read and comprehend more. That's part of it, but FreeFillableForms is not user-friendly at all. The whole federal tax process is an absolute mess. Doing my state taxes is so much easier, thanks to CalFile doing 99% of the work for me. It's a shining example of what our federal tax returns process should be like.
lhopki01 7y ago
The painful bit is having to fill out anything at all. I lived and worked in the UK for 11 years and I didn't have to fill out a form once in all those 11 years. My brother who had rental income only needed to fill out a small form for this additional rental income.

keb_ 7y ago

I think they are "painful" because they are tedious and unnecessary assuming the government can already pre-fill the information. You also have to understand that many people may not have the same reading comprehension skills as you do.

maxerickson 7y ago

That's not what intuitive means. ('intuitive' is over used as a goal, but a form where you look up the instructions line by line in a separate book and where you occasionally have to search out how to fill out a subform is not intuitive at all.)

magashna 7y ago

Painful compared to other countries which send you "this is what we have on you" and you say "yep" and that's it.

iamwpj 7y ago

I'm with you. The instructions on how to fill out every form come with the form.

Gh0stRAT 7y ago

>What about the free forms is painful? The first time I used FreeFillableForms, it was also my first time doing taxes manually. Reading all the instructions and then going off and computing whether or not the AMT applies to me, researching whether I was eligible for this and that deduction, etc was very time consuming. I estimate it must have taken me over 12 hours which was definitely not worth my time financially, but I did it anyway as a matter of principle. THEN I ran into a nasty snag: I had put a "0" in a bunch of the fields that I'd decided didn't apply to me, but the IRS validation script expected those fields to be blank and repeatedly rejected my submissions with cryptic error messages about form validation errors. It takes at least a day to hear back after you submit, so it took me weeks after I was "done" with my taxes before I could figure out the problem and get all the fields changed from zeros to blanks that the IRS needed in order to actually accept my taxes. >I think people think they are "painful" because they need to read and comprehend more. That's part of it, but FreeFillableForms is not user-friendly at all. The whole federal tax process is an absolute mess. Doing my state taxes is so much easier, thanks to CalFile doing 99% of the work for me. It's a shining example of what our federal tax returns process should be like.

lhopki01 7y ago

The painful bit is having to fill out anything at all. I lived and worked in the UK for 11 years and I didn't have to fill out a form once in all those 11 years. My brother who had rental income only needed to fill out a small form for this additional rental income.