Re:How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing
by lflux on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @03:30PM
(#5445534)
Last year I filed all my deductions from renovating and selling an apartment online. There's a fair amount of functionality now (according to the FAQ selling forest, business income, house/apartment sales (K2,5,6) investments (K4) et c) can be done online.
The swedish tax authority also incentivizes people to e-file: if you e-file, you'll get your tax return before midsummer, which in Sweden is a BIG holiday, when most people kick off their summer vacation. Even if you accept the defaults, but file on paper, you'll get your money in August instead of June.
For capital gains vs losses, when you trade with stock, you however have to do it "manually" (not pre-filled). (For Swedes: K4 I think is mandatory but can easily be computed by your portfolia broker such as Avanza).
I think today the website that the Swedish tax office provides for you to actually fill in and confirm your tax statements is like a free, online version of what previous generations commercial tax software was about. Every year it includes yet another bit of functionality that simplifies it or handles a new corner case. For the majority it has been very simple for quite some years - send an SMS to confirm the pre-printed statement for example. But if you trade with shares, or if you have a business, or for example own forest (which automatically makes you a business), it is not as simple yet.