If you lived in a state not listed here, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory, Direct File won’t support your tax filing needs.
Ok so here in DC we don’t get a voting representative, senators, or that free software other states get. Got it.
it’s a soft launch of only 13 states. they’ll roll it out to everyone next year probably
Good stuff. Keep in mind that Intuit fought this for a very long time. But since they finally got stomped, the IRS can do it’s thing now.
Internal American news, not interesting for the average user.
Although is it really that hard in USA? In Norway it is mostly automatic. I barely have to put in any effort
Yes. It can be a huge pain. Especially when compared to how easy Skatteetaten makes it.
Oh yeah. See we’ve intentionally made it hard for our government to do normal things because Freedomtm. If we want to create a new web app like this we have to go about the worst way possible. By using the lowest bidder who will then cheat in every way possible to keep more of the money as profit.
Most of the computer systems in use in the US government were developed in the 1980’s and 1990’s by in house software developers. Even a lot of the “new” systems are literally just GUI interfaces slapped on the old system. This is because one of the first things George Bush did was gut a lot of the government’s internal support structure and force the civil service to rely on contracting.
Then you have corporate lobbying, which is why filing taxes is so hard in the first place. They literally pay the politicians to create a business opportunity for them and misery for the everyone else. Combining the two and it’s not hard for the lobbyists to get something like this cancelled, underfunded, or poisoned in some way.
So yeah welcome to America the land of proud dysfunction.
Sadly it doesn’t support reporting income from independent contracting (yet).
Somebody think of the poor corporations!
Damn only like 20 years behind the rest of the world.
Couldn’t hear you over the sound of my freedom
…nevermind, that was somebody rolling coal
I guess canada is 21 years behind now…
can’t use it if i got my health insurance through obamacare? -_- fucking bullshit
I can’t use it because I live in the wrong state. Truly some fucking bullshit.
To be specific, this is a pilot program, with the full launch coming later.
Ya last year 50 states worth of all insured and uninsured people dealt with evil tax prep companies :)
Can someone with more knowledge than me explain how this might differ from Canada’s system
It differs because more of it goes to the defense budget than any other country by a high order of magnitude.
Good thing Intuit (TurboTax) is fighting so hard to keep the current format super slick and cheaper as a private service rather than a centralized government process. Right up there with disbanding garbage pickup in favor of individually contracted services because [checks notes] 7 overlapping truck routes will be cheaper than 1
While… I agree with you on companies like Intuit pulling this is bullshit, depending on the region you’re in the trash example used is… not great.
Speaking in the Kansas City region where City of Kansas City trash pickup is literally two bags allowed, no cans used, often late, the bags tear easily, and with this whole freeze thing they’re still behind two weeks out. I live outside in one of those 5 (I’m not kidding, one literally started up last year) overlapping truck routes and it is insanely better. That said, previous town I lived in the town did the trash pickup and they did a good job, got the cans that could be auto lifted and even regularly had large item pickup days for free so even better than where I’m at now.
Anecdotal evidence here, too. My experience is the opposite. Never had an issue with my city picking up the trash, putting the can back reasonably, and not randomly skipping my shit. Moved to a different NEIGHBORHOOD, one not directly serviced by the city, and half the time they don’t get it, and when they do the can ends up about 10 feet from where it should be, blocking my driveway.
To make matters worse, presumably my taxes paid for the previous pickup. Now they pay for the previous pickup, AND I have to pay for shit service!
I can’t wait until this is available in my state!
I don’t understand the praise here. 1040EZ is about as simple as it gets, and it’s free to file.
1040EZ hasn’t been a thing since 2018.
a basic tax return then. don’t be pedantic. it’s a simple as following some fucking directions. i haven’t filed a simple return in almost 20 years so EXCUSE my mistake. The IRS is cancer and shouldn’t be praised in any way shape of form.
Who are you to call anyone or anything a cancer when you’re so obviously ignorant of basic information, the attitude comes across like an old man yelling at clouds.
Even if they were a cancer it’s not like it changes without improvement. Your entire premise is destructive and useless.
Keep defending the hand that holds you down.
Then figure it out because people have been talking about it for a long time.
No they haven’t. Taxes are easy to do yourself if you’re not a dullard.
I experienced true happiness for a moment. Only one moment.
Why is it only available in such a limited number of states?
This is the first launch of the program and they’re still in a pilot phase. It will presumably roll out to more states (maybe all?) Next year
Well I don’t reward laziness and this should have been running in the late 90s.
I guess I’ll just file my taxes when the lazy IRS gets off their asses.
The IRS could not legally do this before. They had tried and were sued.
According to their website it could roll out to more states as soon as mid March of this year.
Likely because of state government and state income tax.
The IRS doesn’t have anything to do with state taxes though unless they’re also handling your state filing free for you?
These states are building online filing systems as well. I think that is why they are included.
Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention!
If you aren’t able to use this new system, a good second option is freetaxusa.com. Free for most filings and dirt cheap for more complex stuff. Also, they are easier to use than TurboTax.
that’s who I use! $15 to file state, free federal; I mean that’s pretty close to ‘free’ compared to Turbo/Inuit pushing you close to $100 after all the BS. And freetaxusa keeps my info for subsequent years, etc.
that’s who I use! $15 to file state
I’d suggest using the IRS’s Free File Program wizard to find a tax program that’ll do your state taxes for free. You’d save a little money that way. Most tax programs will keep your info for multiple years after your first time using them, too.
thanks, but I make too much according to that, which is something else people seem to skip over whenever these “just do it for free!!!” posts come up. You have to make below $80k (AGI) even when married.
But, again, even if I didn’t, $15 seems pretty fair to me, to avoid having to hunt for the magical free method.
Also, check with your state tax site, as sometimes they have free state filing options.
A better idea is to go to irs.gov and use their free file wizard to see which service is free for you. I used 1040.com this year. Last year I used freetaxusa.com, but this year that would not have been free for me due to my change in income. Which service is free depends on your state, income, and income complexity.
My problem with IRS.gov is they have a history of sending traffic to sites owned by Intuit. These sites would claim to be free, but would then trick the user into a paid pathway and guide them to an expensive paid checkout. I haven’t been back to IRS.gov since experiencing that.
I learned later that Intuit (who owns Turbotax) had spent millions lobbying to get that to happen. Since the IRS can be lobbied by corporations to trick users like that, I just don’t trust IRS.gov to be honest.
TurboTax discontinued their participation in the IRS Free File program a few years back, IIRC. I don’t think they’ll be listed on the IRS’s Free File website.
Corporations are able to buy their way into an IRS endorsement. There is no reason to trust their links just because a singularly egregious deception has been removed from their site.
The IRS presented them to the public as a “free option” for years, knowing they were not free. The IRS lied for profit. I have no reason at all to ever trust their suggestions.
It would be unreasonable for me to return to the same entity that lied to me and ask for more advice.
The IRS presented them to the public as a “free option” for years, knowing they were not free.
The only time they’re not free is if you don’t meet the requirements for the Free File Program or you try to use one of TurboTax’s services that aren’t part of the Free File Program.
I actually used TurboTax for years before they left the Free File Program (supposedly because it was too restrictive in what they could charge for), and I never had to pay a cent. I’ve since moved on to other tax sites that are still part of the Free File Program, and I’ve still never had to pay anything.
Most prople who tried to use the program were deceived by Intuit. Intuit settled numerous lawsuits for their lies. Their expensive settlement is why Intuit left the program. Here’s a relevant exerpt from an Ars Technica article on the topic:
Meanwhile, the federal government and US states have taken action against Intuit for its allegedly deceptive promises of “free” tax filing to lower-income taxpayers. In a May 2022 settlement with all 50 US states and the District of Columbia, Intuit agreed to pay $141 million in restitution to millions of consumers.
Intuit also agreed in the settlement to stop its “free, free, free” ad campaign. The firm was accused of steering customers away from the IRS Free File program that is free to 70 percent of taxpayers while using misleading ads to promote a separate “freemium” TurboTax product that isn’t actually free for most people.
Separately, the Federal Trade Commission’s chief administrative law judge ruled last month that Intuit violated US law with deceptive advertising and should be forced to stop promoting TurboTax as “free” unless all conditions imposed on the free offer are immediately and conspicuously displayed to consumers.
I would argue that the IRS wasn’t at fault here, though. Like the article said, people were steered away from the Free File Program, so people having to pay wasn’t a fault of the Free File Program but rather a fault of Intuit’s deceptive practices of marketing their alternative freemium versions of their software.
Intuit recently got slapped by a different government agency. I doubt that they will get that privelage again for a while.
Nice, here’s that link.
Check out Tax Hawk, it might be a good option for you this year
For a couple of years CreditKarma was the best free solution. Then Intuit bought them.
Intuit divested the tax product in that sale, which was bought by Block (FKA Square) and is part of their Cash App brand. So it’s still around and still not Intuit.
Last I checked you couldn’t use the cash app version without downloading their app.
The login process for it is absolutely terrible and requires so much jumping back and forth between the dumb app and my computer, which is where I want to actually do my taxes.
It would probably have better adoption if it didn’t have such a scammy-sounding name.
I used it, but then one year it was telling me I owed money. When I double checked on TurboTax, it was the opposite. I went with Turbo Tax. I’ve been wary of FreeTaxUSA since…
Be careful. If software miscalculates in your favor and the IRS figures it out, you’re gonna have a bad time.
I’ve been using this for years and have been happy with the service. If I have to pay for something at least I’m not giving money to TurboTax.
why is it the US is hellbent on making everything a state by state issue but at the same time saying federal law is above state law in such cases like Texas but states with legal cannabis or states with legal abortion are allowed to be above federal
is the US the United States or not
make it make sense
The idea of checks and balances on the exercise of government powers extends to even the state/federal relationship.
The things that the federal government is responsible for are laid out in the Constitution, everything the Constitution does not place into the responsibilities of the federal government is left to state or local authorities.
Tenth Amendment:
Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.
that old thing desperately needs to be rewritten
You trust the politicians of today to rewrite the whole thing? They can’t even agree on a budget.
Before or after a guillotine is set up outside the place where they’re drafting it as insurance?
It’s 50 states in a trench coat
50 countries, but yeah
A state is just another term for a country. The two words never meant something different until our American Union got some people confused.
That’s a fair point. I was mostly sticking to the colloquial usage.
make it make sense
We’re a slightly tighter coupled EU with less history of separation. We’re states that are united. Not one big ol unified country.
Not one big ol unified country.
What’d the frats chant when we killed Bin Laden? ;)
Frats are probably not the best go to for people educated on the country lol
“more poon now!”
IDK why people are downvoting you, that’s essentially how it works. Everything is super interconnected now, but it wasn’t always that way and the constitution hasn’t been updated to reflect it.
