About those 87,000 new IRS "Agents"

[pdq]

Some crazy folks want to bring the IRS into the 21st century so they’d be able to calculate most folks income taxes for them, for free:

“It’s definitely something we should do, and when the IRS is adequately resourced, it’s something that will happen,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen at a June Senate Finance Committee hearing.

… Perhaps this biggest hurdle is an agreement between the IRS and some commercial tax preparation companies, known as the Free File Alliance, which prevents the federal agency from creating its own free tax return filing system. In short, the IRS agreed not create its own filing system if companies would instead provide free services to taxpayers making $73,000 or less.

…The Government Accountability Office in April reported that while 70% of taxpayers were eligible for services through the Free File Alliance, only 3% of taxpayers actually use the service.

Huh. Why is that?

In 2019, ProPublica wrote about Intuit’s TurboTax and H&R Block Inc.’s efforts to mislead taxpayers away from the federally supported free services for which they qualified. And in May, New York Attorney General Letitia James secured a $141 million settlement with Mountain View, California-based Intuit Inc., which had to pay restitution to some taxpayers.

What a surprise. Couldn’t see that one coming. :RollingEyesSmiley5:

“As a taxpayer, there could be a great benefit to pre-population [of income and tax data by the IRS on a computerized form] he said. “Filing taxes is enormously time-consuming. Given all the information the IRS has on taxpayers, they could simply send you a completed return.”

…which you could accept, or change, if they somehow have incomplete or wrong info.

Better compliance, fewer audits, quicker refunds. Taxpayer can still do it themselves if they have legit info to support it.