this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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The rest of the developed world has had this for decades.
So I fully expect this initiative to be lobbied out of existence by Intuit and the rest of the tax filing industry.
Pretty sure most people outside the US never even have to file a tax return? Income tax is deducted at source by employers. Solicitors collect it if you buy/sell a house. Etc etc. You only need to do a tax return if you're self-employed or quite wealthy (in the UK, at least).
I am self-employed. It takes about an hour to do my taxes online.
Western Europe here. I’m old enough that I’ve had to file many paper tax forms. There have always been free services to help with that.
Now you can do it all online, and the known information is pre-filled. The last few years you don’t even have to click “accept” anymore, accepting is automatic if you don’t do anything.
That said, there still are paid services, but their main aim is to find all the ways to reduce what you pay (and they are likely used mainly by the well off).
Australian here. The ATO (australian tax office) has a website you go to. It is pre-filled with various dada, your salary, your bank interest, uni loans, etc.
You add any additional salary, eg gig economy or crypto earnings (lol) and put in your deductions. I deduct heaps because I make money on the side renting out my camper van, and all its expenses are deductable from its earnings, but if you just have one job and thats it, then you can be done with your tax return in 10 mins, for free, online.
You can even preview your expected tax return before you commit. Once you commit, the return lands in your bank acvount usually within a week or so. You even get a receipt showimg what they spent your money on.
Cost whom billions?
Intuit's bottom line.
To the taxpayer, ofc. As opposed to the status quo, that costs billions to the taxpayer.
Yeah, even my third world country does this. But this only works if you only have a 9 to 5 job. Some people have more complicated tax.
This guy explains it a bit more:
https://youtu.be/Vu3T4ZXzOyw?si=rEa-U7GHoe_DapeV
Luckily, most people are 9 to 5ers. The vast majority of people have simple taxes that a trained monkey could handle if it weren't for the Intuit cabal.
Let not perfect be the enemy of good. This is a good step and from here, we can improve the system by steps until the only people who can't use it are tax cheats. Over optimistic? Yes, but I'm taking my wins to go.