Re:Would You Let the I.R.S. Prepare Your Taxes?
by dragonwriter on Wednesday April 15, 2015 @01:00PM
(#9382367)
> I think there's some logic in this objection
I don't. The IRS is going to calculate how much people owe in any case. The question is whether they provide all the information they've collected first, and calculate the results based on that, and provide it to the taxpayer who can either accept it or note any changes/additional information and return it, or they make the taxpayer do it first from scratch (or pay someone else to do it, or pay for a tool to do it), and then the IRS goes and does it in anyway for every taxpayer taking into account the information they have from the taxpayer and what they have received separately.
In either case, the IRS is absolutely going to calculate how much people owe. That's not even the choice that is at issue. So the objection to one side of that choice that the IRS calculating how much people owe is a "conflict of interest" is a non-sequitur; it simply has no bearing on the choice.
I don't. The IRS is going to calculate how much people owe in any case. The question is whether they provide all the information they've collected first, and calculate the results based on that, and provide it to the taxpayer who can either accept it or note any changes/additional information and return it, or they make the taxpayer do it first from scratch (or pay someone else to do it, or pay for a tool to do it), and then the IRS goes and does it in anyway for every taxpayer taking into account the information they have from the taxpayer and what they have received separately.
In either case, the IRS is absolutely going to calculate how much people owe. That's not even the choice that is at issue. So the objection to one side of that choice that the IRS calculating how much people owe is a "conflict of interest" is a non-sequitur; it simply has no bearing on the choice.