"The Internal Revenue Service has quietly built its own prototype system to allow Americans to file tax returns digitally and free of charge" I think opening t

"The Internal Revenue Service has quietly built its own prototype system to allow Americans to file tax returns digitally and free of charge" I think opening the article this way is misleading, although they explain it better later on. This isn't about filing for free, it's about guided tax preparation. Those automated systems that ask a series of simple questions and magically submit your tax return. That's why tax complexity is the underlying issue. To do your taxes you "just" have to follow along a 100+ page instruction booklet (plus instruction booklets for any additional forms). Even with the Free Fillable Forms (free government electronic filing for everyone with digital forms and some automated calculations) it's a pain in the butt. By rephrasing the questions, automating the calculations, and checking for errors, fairly complex taxes can be done in under an hour. So we're playing this stupid game where the government spends the time and money to write complex taxes and all the forms and instructions to go with them, just for us to pay businesses to simplify it all so we can tell the government what our taxes really are. I hope this change takes a big chunk out of the $14 billion tax prep industry (that's more than the IRS's expenditures), because maybe when they're out of the game Congress will be a little more motivated.