Posted on 02/21/2017 1:45:39 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The yearly ritual of submitting tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) may not be something most of us look forward to doing, but do we really want the federal government to do it for us?
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has proposed legislation that would require the IRS to offer you the convenience of doing your taxes for you. The actual bill would require the IRS to create programs that help taxpayers process and file their federal taxes for free. Sen. Warren says taxpayers spend, on average, 13 hours and about $200 for tax preparation services to file their tax returns. Of course, this is unnecessary (if not misleading), as there are plenty of free services available to most Americans.
Having the IRS take over the process of filing our tax returns is not an idea that will make America great again. Our tax system is based on the concept of voluntary compliance, and hollowing this out by replacing it with a government-run tax preparation system moves the IRS from a tax administration, collection, and enforcement agency on to giving “advice” to the people it’s taking money from -- a clear conflict of interest.
How long before such "advice" becomes mandatory?
Can American taxpayers trust the same government agency that wants as much of their money as possible to also decide which benefits and deductions they will receive? Even if such a system were convenient and free, would we really want it?
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
“Sen. Warren says taxpayers spend, on average, 13 hours and about $200 for tax preparation services to file their tax returns.”
Absolutely bogus. Go to IRS.GOV, click on “Free File”, and most Americans with less than $60,000 income can file for free. Takes most people about 30-60 minutes.
Because of investment income, I spent $40 this year for the software.
Eliz Warden, this is a brilliant idea!
When people realize your insane idea, they’ll never vote Democrat again! You are such a clever spy for the conservative cause....almost as good as McCain is to the left.
It’s ridiculous and obscene. The states should each set their own tax policy and then let the states pay the FedGov based on services used and representation.
How about eliminate the ridiculous tax code and make a simple fair tax that eliminates the need for the tax industry.
That’s a recipe for civil war.
That’s a recipe for civil war.
She is an idiot.
When Income Tax was first enacted, it started at 2%, on incomes over about $600,000 in todays dollars. In those days too, there was a relatively fixed amount of money in circulation. There was nowhere else to get it, than for government to tax some it back out of circulation, or tariffs.
With a printing press, it begs the question. Yes, it’s a little more complicated than the government printing up the money they need, but not much. Why are they taxing anyone in the first place?
The answer of course, is they want to reward some, and punish others, and general “social policy”, and the rest of it. Barky even said so out loud in public, that he didn’t care if a certain policy would reduce tax revenue, it was the “right thing to do”.
It’s a recipe for a constitutional republic. And assuming that the liberal utopias have to pay their own freight, there won’t be any.
Isn’t that what the short-form is used for?
It is simple really. Just have your employer send all your paycheck to the IRS and the IRS will send you back your fair share.
When the tax collector tells you how much you owe on an annual basis, they could easily overcharge and get away with it.
Actually it’s not a bad idea. The IRS already gets automated feeds for income, investments, intestests, w2’s, 1099s.
The IRS could send out a precalculated return that says
“This is what we calculated for you.
If you don’t have any other income to report such as items in this list and you don’t have any other items to deduct such as items in this list, then sign the slip at the bottom and return in the postage paid envelope.
********
If the taxpayer is going to wait to hear from IRS, it will mean you are completing your return later.
Right now, you wait for your info reports (W-2, 1099, 1098, the ACA 1095-A, etc.) and usually get them around the end of January or mid-February deadline for them to be issued to you. Then you can use them and the your other information to file your own return.
After you file, IRS reviews what you reported to see if it jives with what they got. Certain documents, like the W-2 and 1099s are checking right away, and they will adjust your tax if there is a discrepancy. Other details are reviewed on a longer time frame, and it might be September or later before you hear from them if they come across something to adjust your taxes from where you calculated them.
If you are going to have the taxpayer wait for IRS to calculate the tax, it will delay the final determination of refunds or taxes owed much later into the year than it is now.
Another reason why Fauxahontis’ idea is worth pie of buffalo.
Stands With A Stick Up Her Butt is insane.
I’d MAYBE go along with this if I were allowed to ‘audit’ their version of my return.
And I am able to penalize them [and have them send me the penalty amount backdated with interest to the date they filed] if they made a mistake or were late.
Why would you have to wait? If you know you want to do your own return, or that you have things on it, that the IRS isn’t going to be able to be aware of, then you could go ahead and file. You wouldn’t have to wait on the IRS.
But for a lot of people, the IRS calculating it would be one less thing they have to worry about.
Surprisingly - the software they have developed is pretty decent. I was a tax volunteer on the last Base I was on and we used IRS software to do folks' taxes - worked at least as good as any other I used and had easy options to bump the difference between filing married-joint or married-separate, etc.
What I didn't like is that some Latinos were adding folks who were obviously illegal aliens to their returns and the rule was to "just do it" - seems the IRS is a lot easier on alien law breakers than conservatives.
To ask the question is to answer the question. Bad, bad idea.
I had an audit some years ago because I hadn’t filed in many years because in my opinion I didn’t owe any taxes. My regular attorney sent me to this old retired IRS agent. He said he would drive them crazy and he did.
First thing he said in a meeting with two young bright IRS scalphunters was tell them how we were 100% willing to cooperate. In fact, we would give them all my records and they could go through them and fill out a proposed tax return. Of course, he reserved the right to question items or make corrections. You would not believe how slooooowly he talked. You could see the IRS agents squirming and trying to finish his sentences.
Out in the car, I said, “Are you crazy? What will that accomplish?” He said, “I know what I’m doing. Now I want you to go to your office and put everything in your records into one big box. Be sure you empty the trash baskets and ashtrays in there as well. Oh, and don’t leave them in folders. Dump them in haphazzardly and make sure the individual papers aren’t stuck together or the weeks and months and years aren’t in sequence”
I began to laugh like hell and did as he said. We had a second meeting and they both strained to get the huge box out of his office and down the stairs. Some months later my doorbell rang and several boxes of nicely stacked and bound paper records in sequenced years and dates were sitting at my doorstep while one of the bright young scalphunters hot-footed it to his IRS car.
Attached was a letter saying they didn’t believe I owed any taxes. I was relieved to be vindicated but in my heart of hearts I always believed they got the message from someone about the old man and didn’t want to mess with him.
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