H&R Block and Intuit Lobbying Against Simpler Tax Filing (2017)

In an opinion piece for The Daily Caller and on his site, Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., said “making the tax collector also the tax preparer creates an inherent conflict of interest while forcing citizens to relinquish control of their taxes to the government.” The government already controls taxes and thus citizens’ incomes. In a time when so many are worried about privacy, few voice any concern about the enormous privacy problems inherent in the forced full disclosure of the intimate…

In the Netherlands we have had this for years. You login with the tax agency and download a pre-filled tax form. Wages and Income Tax is pre-filled, as are Bank savings and morgages. The pre-filled form is complete for over 90% of people. The 10% for who it is not can add or correct things that our IRS may not know correctly (i.e. foreign holdings or bitcoins). You then digitally sign and submit it. It's quite easy to do yourself…

There's another bad-faith actor in this fight to make you burn your time preparing tedious tax bullshit for your personal taxes. It's Grover Norquist: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/grover-norquist/grover-norqui... To give these folks something they don't deserve (an assumption of good faith, non-cynicism, benefit of the doubt, etc): they think "letting" the IRS do folks' taxes will lead to more taxes and poor, defenseless taxpayers simply won't have the courage to challenge a "bill" from the IRS. Simple fix: let…

I worked at TurboTax. They are really good at separating employees into two groups. Group 1, which is by far the largest group, really wants to make it easier for people to get their taxes done. Group 2 makes sure that the govt doesn't make any progress on making it easier for people to do their taxes. Make taxes even more convoluted, so that you need TurboTax (not just personal but also their software for CPAs). Make sure there isn't…