4 ms·

How about we just have the gov't do the math based on what our employers already tell them and then send us a bill or refund. Why must we play this game as if t

How about we just have the gov't do the math based on what our employers already tell them and then send us a bill or refund. Why must we play this game as if the gov't doesn't know all the info already?

PaulDavisThe1st 1y ago
There are a bunch of us for whom it doesn't have all the info (if any, in fact). Granted, the ranks of the self-employed are a small fraction of all taxpayers, and there's no reason the latter should be forced to do things as if they were part of the former.
- Henchman21 1y ago
  Yep I think the Pareto principle applies: let’s knock out 80% who can just be sent a bill/check.
SoftTalker 1y ago
Because in many cases they don't know. They don't know about your self-employment income and business expenses. They might not know about your marital status and dependents. They won't know about various credits such as education expenses, solar or EV credits, etc.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- smadge 1y ago
  What percentage of tax filers have a single W-2, maybe a 1099, and take the standard deduction? If I had to guess, 80%.
  - SoftTalker 1y ago
    Probably. And they could do their taxes on paper in 20 minutes if they weren't afraid to. TurboTax would like you to believe otherwise of course.
    - Henchman21 1y ago
      That fear seems, anecdotally, to be related to fucking it up and incurring massive liability possibly jail time. It doesn’t even matter if that statement is true — it just seems to be The Fear.
tallowen 1y ago
There is a bunch of code to import w2s from the SSA in this codebase - this did happen this year for direct file. That being said, big issues remain: - Employers don't tell the federal government about state tax information and when they do, the government doesn't store that information - W2s aren't due to the SSA at the opening of tax filing season and penalties aren't commonly enforced for submitting w2s on time. https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/direct-file/df-client/df-client-app/src/redux/slices/data-import/schema/W2Schema.ts#L28 https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/direct-f...

PaulDavisThe1st 1y ago

There are a bunch of us for whom it doesn't have all the info (if any, in fact). Granted, the ranks of the self-employed are a small fraction of all taxpayers, and there's no reason the latter should be forced to do things as if they were part of the former.

Henchman21 1y ago
Yep I think the Pareto principle applies: let’s knock out 80% who can just be sent a bill/check.

SoftTalker 1y ago

Because in many cases they don't know. They don't know about your self-employment income and business expenses. They might not know about your marital status and dependents. They won't know about various credits such as education expenses, solar or EV credits, etc.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
smadge 1y ago
What percentage of tax filers have a single W-2, maybe a 1099, and take the standard deduction? If I had to guess, 80%.
- SoftTalker 1y ago
  Probably. And they could do their taxes on paper in 20 minutes if they weren't afraid to. TurboTax would like you to believe otherwise of course.
  - Henchman21 1y ago
    That fear seems, anecdotally, to be related to fucking it up and incurring massive liability possibly jail time. It doesn’t even matter if that statement is true — it just seems to be The Fear.

tallowen 1y ago

There is a bunch of code to import w2s from the SSA in this codebase - this did happen this year for direct file. That being said, big issues remain: - Employers don't tell the federal government about state tax information and when they do, the government doesn't store that information - W2s aren't due to the SSA at the opening of tax filing season and penalties aren't commonly enforced for submitting w2s on time. https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/direct-file/df-client/df-client-app/src/redux/slices/data-import/schema/W2Schema.ts#L28 https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/direct-f...