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A comment on Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing. Parent comment

Re:Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering ... by jonathankoren on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @11:52AM (#19615907)
The pen. Seriously.

I used TurboTax this year, and honestly I was underwhelmed, especially when it came to the state forms. It didn’t really seem like it did much, and the California form experience were full of obvious bugs. Questions with no context. (“Enter city 2”) Questions being given out of order. PDFs being viewed through a mail slot. PDF forms where the entry blanks and the entries would scroll at different t rates, so you couldn’t read the form. It was super frustrating. The whole thing felt like a cheap unskilled body shop of a program, and made me want to just use a pen.

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Re:Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering ... by onlyrealcuzzo on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:49PM (#19617798)
I'm thinking about self-filing this year. Although, I'm really running down to the wire.

It's basically as easy as filing out a W2 if you're a full-time salaried employee with no deductions, right?

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Re:Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering ... by ncallaway on Wednesday April 10, 2019 @01:50AM (#19622199)
It's really not that bad.

I have to file mildly complicated taxes due to getting my income from a partnership, and even that I can do in a couple hours by following the 1040 instructions, and the filling out any ancillary schedules that are required.

If you have straightforward W2 income, taking the standard deduction, and a reasonable number of retirement or investment accounts, it should take you an hour to fill out the form following the instructions. Maybe plan on a couple hours the first year, while you get used to it, but it's no so bad.

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Re:Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering ... by astura on Wednesday April 10, 2019 @12:40AM (#19621894)
It's very easy in that situation.
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Re:Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering ... by jonathankoren on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @09:31PM (#19620895)
It is literally 1040-EZ.
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Re:Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering ... by astura on Wednesday April 10, 2019 @12:38AM (#19621883)
1040-EZ went away in 2018, 1040 is now the only form. :(
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Re:Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering ... by tathougies on Wednesday April 10, 2019 @11:16AM (#19625523)
The new 1040 form is shorter and easier than the old 1040 ez though
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Re:Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering ... by astura on Thursday April 11, 2019 @08:16AM (#19633587)
We'll have to agree to disagree.
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Re:Congress Is About to Ban the US Government from Offering ... by HeWhoLurksLate on Wednesday April 10, 2019 @08:39AM (#19623994)
1040: easy
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