6 ms·

I am of the opinion that each time the IRS adds a new form, they should by law provide a way to e-file it for free. Essentially no end-user tax software support

I am of the opinion that each time the IRS adds a new form, they should by law provide a way to e-file it for free. Essentially no end-user tax software supports my personal tax situation, because the support for international situations is usually pretty terrible. Alternatively they could dramatically reduce the reporting burden for international people, perhaps with a cap on income or net worth, but I suspect pigs will fly before the US does that.

jansan 3y ago
In this aspect, things in Europe are actually much better. We in Germany can use a software called ELSTER, which by now has become quite usable and can be used to file all your text reports. I heard in the Netherlands the tax office sends the tax report to you and you will just have to check the numbers.
- tgv 3y ago
  That's not (entirely) true. You fill in the tax forms online on the website of the tax office, but only the known income, bank accounts, and mortgage have been filled in already. If you're an independent contractor, own a company, have stock, pension plans outside the normal pension funds, donated to charity, etc., there's still a lot to be filled in.
imgabe 3y ago
There is https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/ https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/ which supports most of the IRS forms as far as I know. I live outside the US and have freelance income and haven't run into a situation I couldn't use there yet.
- baby 3y ago
  Is this official? Usually I don’t use government stuff that don’t have a .gov
  - wccrawford 3y ago
    No, it appears to be run by "OnLine Taxes".
    - dangus 3y ago
      You are not correct, it is a service that is directly linked from the IRS: https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-forms https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-form... It may be made by a contractor but it’s the IRS’ official free filing solution without the sort of income and situation limitations that exist with the free filing products. That said, I prefer TurboTax’s better competitors like FreeTaxUSA because filling out the forms yourself still really sucks. In the crappy system we have the best you can do is either find a cheap and decent commercial filing solution or get yourself a tax professional, because everything else is a huge time waste.
      - wccrawford 3y ago
        They certainly link to it, but the TOS says: These Terms of Service ("Agreement") is a legal agreement between you ("you", "your", "licensee"), and On-Line Taxes, Inc. ("OnLine Taxes", "we", "our" or "us"). That doesn't sounds like the IRS to me. Maybe they do work for the IRS, but it's not them.
        dangus 3y ago
        Sure but they’re the official completely free filing option where it’s always free even if you don’t qualify for the free tax product that all the other tax services have. It’s not some random fly by night website.
- noodlesUK 3y ago
  Unfortunately it does not cover form 5471 which is required if you own an interest in a non US company (even if the company is dormant), or form 8858 which many more internationally self employed people now need to fill out as of a few years ago, as most people self employed abroad are now seen by the IRS as a “foreign branch” of a U.S. person.
- EE84M3i 3y ago
  Does it work for Americans aboard that take Foreign Earned Income Exclusion? Unfortunately it has no support for AMT on Form 1116 (Foreign Tax Credit). I believe taking any FTC requires doing a full AMT calculation (instructions for schedule 2 line 1) which includes a separate AMT version of 1116, so as far as I know FFF is useless for anyone that takes FTC.
sirsinsalot 3y ago
This is how the UK works. They must provide a free means to file. HMRC must provide a free software solution that covers a large portion of income tax and national insurance.
- noodlesUK 3y ago
  Unfortunately I couldn’t file my UK self assessment for the same reason. Only a few of the self assessment pages are supported, and anything which requires the residency or foreign pages requires commercial software. The software is dramatically cheaper than it is in the U.S. but I still take issue with it on principle.

jansan 3y ago

In this aspect, things in Europe are actually much better. We in Germany can use a software called ELSTER, which by now has become quite usable and can be used to file all your text reports. I heard in the Netherlands the tax office sends the tax report to you and you will just have to check the numbers.

tgv 3y ago
That's not (entirely) true. You fill in the tax forms online on the website of the tax office, but only the known income, bank accounts, and mortgage have been filled in already. If you're an independent contractor, own a company, have stock, pension plans outside the normal pension funds, donated to charity, etc., there's still a lot to be filled in.

imgabe 3y ago

There is https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/ https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/ which supports most of the IRS forms as far as I know. I live outside the US and have freelance income and haven't run into a situation I couldn't use there yet.

baby 3y ago
Is this official? Usually I don’t use government stuff that don’t have a .gov
- wccrawford 3y ago
  No, it appears to be run by "OnLine Taxes".
  - dangus 3y ago
    You are not correct, it is a service that is directly linked from the IRS: https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-forms https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-form... It may be made by a contractor but it’s the IRS’ official free filing solution without the sort of income and situation limitations that exist with the free filing products. That said, I prefer TurboTax’s better competitors like FreeTaxUSA because filling out the forms yourself still really sucks. In the crappy system we have the best you can do is either find a cheap and decent commercial filing solution or get yourself a tax professional, because everything else is a huge time waste.
    - wccrawford 3y ago
      They certainly link to it, but the TOS says: These Terms of Service ("Agreement") is a legal agreement between you ("you", "your", "licensee"), and On-Line Taxes, Inc. ("OnLine Taxes", "we", "our" or "us"). That doesn't sounds like the IRS to me. Maybe they do work for the IRS, but it's not them.
      - dangus 3y ago
        Sure but they’re the official completely free filing option where it’s always free even if you don’t qualify for the free tax product that all the other tax services have. It’s not some random fly by night website.
noodlesUK 3y ago
Unfortunately it does not cover form 5471 which is required if you own an interest in a non US company (even if the company is dormant), or form 8858 which many more internationally self employed people now need to fill out as of a few years ago, as most people self employed abroad are now seen by the IRS as a “foreign branch” of a U.S. person.
EE84M3i 3y ago
Does it work for Americans aboard that take Foreign Earned Income Exclusion? Unfortunately it has no support for AMT on Form 1116 (Foreign Tax Credit). I believe taking any FTC requires doing a full AMT calculation (instructions for schedule 2 line 1) which includes a separate AMT version of 1116, so as far as I know FFF is useless for anyone that takes FTC.

sirsinsalot 3y ago

This is how the UK works. They must provide a free means to file. HMRC must provide a free software solution that covers a large portion of income tax and national insurance.

noodlesUK 3y ago
Unfortunately I couldn’t file my UK self assessment for the same reason. Only a few of the self assessment pages are supported, and anything which requires the residency or foreign pages requires commercial software. The software is dramatically cheaper than it is in the U.S. but I still take issue with it on principle.