Senators Urge IRS to Provide Taxpayers With Free Software

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Here we go again. The only thing a Senator can come up with is entitlement. $20-$30 million dollars while the whole econcomy is in a recovery stage. Why can't Senator Durbin come up with removing EAC credit entitlement to get the US out of this economic mess. Did you know a person can gross over $250,000 as a proprietor (schedule C) claim $11,000 profit and still get the max on EIC credit. IRS will even do a taxpayer taxes for them for nothing. The only thing this Senator wants is someone to give him the taxsoftware so he can do his taxes for nothing!!! You might as well give him an illegal immigrant to clean his houses to!!!!

Ed Caldarelli of KY 1:07PM June 27, 2011

The economics of the whole arrangement is providing a solution already. A record number of taxpayers filed online this year. A free solution is offered to lower income earners. The more complicated situations are handled by experts,
with the aide of fairly sophisticated, but not always 100% foolproof, software at a price reflective of (1) complexity and (2) relative value of taxpayer's time. As the value of taxpayer time increases, generally the return is more complex or has greater impact, so the fee paid is still relative reasonable but may be higher than a lower wage earner could justify.
Competition within the tax preparation software industry drives improvements and is inspired by profit motive. A government solution would be inefficient and not responsive and very likely as expensive or more so. The difference would be the average user would have no idea how much the real cost happened to be, like with how much a war costs per transaction. Where costs are hidden or simply hard to detect lies the opportunity for unreasonable expansion of task cost. It's human nature.
Complexity of the tax code is reflective of our complex economy where a variety of structures have arisen to respond to market demand both overseas and at home. Not all those have the same productive capacity or operate at the same level of speed or sophistication or are at the same level of maturity in lifespan. Life is complex.
What's really irksome to the Congressmen, I suggest, is simply the requirement to fulfill the obligation personally or hire somebody competent to handle the situation. Because one Congressional leader's accountant dies, somehow that spawns the need for government to come closer to doing his taxes for him at tremendous cost to all other taxpayers, rather than the individual simply entering the stream of commerce and finding a replacement. This train of logic permeates Congress, to the general detriment of our economic health.
What's really irksome to me is that with all the problems we face, this is what leadership has chosen to grant higher priority.
I'm not suggesting the current system is without fault. I am suggesting that incremental changes within the code to focus upon getting the "biggest bang for the buck" are worthy of focus and likely to generate far greater returns on investment.

Steven H of VA 11:48AM June 25, 2011

THESE TWO SENATORS HAVE NO CLUE AS TO WHAT IT TAKES TO PREPARE A TAX RETURN. THEY MUST BE REFERRING TO THE 1040EZ FORM. FOR SURE I WOULD NEVER VOTE FOR THESE TWO BECAUSE OF THEIR INCOMPETENCE.

JOE GURDAK of IL 9:48AM June 24, 2011

There are no Senators who think like "us". If they did, they wouldn't be senators because they'd have too much self-respect.
The tax code is too complex; therefore the answer is not to simplify the tax code; the answer is to... create a new government service overseen by a new sub-agency of an already bloated bureaucracy. Fabulous!

Jim Farley of CA 12:23AM June 23, 2011

Obviously these senators don't know of the complexity and knowledge that goes into preparing a personal tax return. I've had countless people come to me to prepare their taxes after they tried using an "off-the-shelf" tax preparation software. They were completely overwhelmed and those tax returns were grossly incorrect and incomplete. This is the real world. There are entire seminars, college courses and masters programs dedicated solely to income tax, so forcing people to prepare their own tax returns is an accident waiting to happen. The reality is, the IRS is already overwhelmed with the number of returns that need to be processed. If they now start receiving thousands upon thousands of incorrect or incomplete tax returns, the tax system, US Treasury and ultimately the government itself will be in a state of chaos. These senators need to come back to reality. Having the middle man expedites and streamlines the tax processing because it's what we do everyday. For example, I'm not about to fix my own car's transmission, replace the roof on my house or perform a medical procedure on myself, and so on. I'm relieved there are professionals who are knowledgeable in those fields. Maybe those senators would like to "cut out the middleman" in those cases and see how it all works out. It's silly to think about it and they need a reality check.

John L of MA 8:38PM June 22, 2011

It is amazing to listen to our elected officials. Durbin says require senators to do their own taxes and we get tax simplification overnight. Really? Each one of them has to balance their finances, yet none of them can agree what to do with our national budget. We have a constitution and Federal & State laws on the books. When was the last time an individual could read it and know what to do without hiring an attorney and going to court? Perhaps Mr. Durbin, as a lawyer, should first ask why we have such laws that require us to have so many lawyers. No wonder we are in such a trouble as a Country, instead of focusing on critical issues he is wasting time with this nonsense.

Michael of FL 4:20PM June 22, 2011

Sure, let's fire all the tax preparers. This will help the economy.
Durbin's accountant must be turning over in his grave over this disloyalty.
How about we just fire Kirk and Durbin, the guys who make the tax laws nobody, including the IRS, understands.

Joe of FL 3:52PM June 22, 2011

This makes no sense considering the IRS could not get their software ready to proocess tax returns until mid February. Add this ploy to the agressive and heavy handed tactics used now by the IRS to go after tax payers to intimidate them into paying taxes and penalties they do not owe and you see part of the grand sceme. The socialists running our government do not clearly care about the taxpayer. By having the IRS provide inferior software to the public to prepare their returns may save the taxpayer a few dollars by not having to pay a CPA but the IRS and government will collect many times over in higher taxes because of the self preprarer's lack of knowledge of our tax laws and knowing when to apply them.

Dane of VA 1:33PM June 22, 2011

We do not need the IRS programming software that probably won't work right. They do a very poor job of their own program.
Many taxpayers have no idea of what should be reported on their tax returns. I have seen many returns completed by Turbo Tax with major information missing because the taxpayer had no idea what the software was talking about.

Bobby Mills of ID 12:25PM June 22, 2011

It's easy for the Congress to cast aspersions on the IRS because they are the interface with the taxpayers.
The truth is it is the CONGRESS that writes (or rather the special interest groups in cahoots with the Congress and their minions), who write the incomprehensible crap they call the tax code.
These guys sit there in the Swamp and come up with garbage several times a year in most cases, that changes and often contradicts the existing tax law to the point now where we have thousands of pages of gabage that none of these guys in the Congress have any idea of understanding.
If you want a fair and simple (as simple as possible - reallly simple is not really doable) tax code you have to burn what we have now and begin anew with several guiding principles that cannot be violated. Once done, changes would have to go through a difficult gaunlet to avoid special interest fiddling.

P.K. of VA 10:58AM June 22, 2011